Colored Rice Easter Eggs

Decorate your house, tree, or front door with colorful rice-filled Easter Eggs.
The process is easy (though it’s tricky to get the rice around those those little eyelets up top.)
Follow the same steps in our Split Pea Shamrocks Tutorial, only cut out small ovals to make eggs. You can easily create an oval in a Word doc or other computer program and print out the size you want.
The fun part of course is dyeing white rice to create all your beautiful Easter colors. Use whatever food coloring you’d like. I tried it with the cheap grocery store stuff and it works fine too. But I’ve had my eye on these for a while. And when you use a coupon from Jo-Ann’s, the whole box of Wilton’s Icing Colors only cost me $5:
Such pretty potential.
Take a dab of food coloring (or a few drops):
And mix it in a bowl with a bit of water. I tried putting drops of food coloring directly into the rice but it didn’t dye evenly; it was splotchy. Just add a bit of water:
Then pour in your white rice (brown rice would probably work too):
Then stir it all around:
Play with the water content and food coloring to find the best tone. If the color is too bright, add more water to the bowl and pour a little out into the sink. Or vice versa. Or add more rice. It’s not a precise science.
When you’re done, lay each rice color out to dry. If there was a lot of water in your mixture, pour off as much water as you can. This will help it dry faster and more evenly.
Then take pictures of your rice just because it looks pretty.
When the rice has dried (could be as soon as a hour or two, or overnight), fill your eggs up and sew them shut.
Then hang them up!
If you’d like to make a color-changing eggs, it’s a bit tedious. But here you go. Dye rice in varying shades of the same color family:
Sew about 1/2 way around the outside of your egg, then sew horizontal lines, equal distance apart. Leave the ends open for rice. With a pen, end of a spoon, etc. push the rice down into each section. When you’ve filled the egg, carefully sew it shut.
Lovely blues:
Happy Easter!

  1. 2) Sharyn

    Okay and what do you do with it afterwards?Can you cook it and make colored rice for dinner?

  2. Hi Dana! I love these eggs so much. I’ve even died my own rice for the kids before, but it was organic rice and it looked so different. I’ll have to try white rice next time. I’m having a blog party this month for Silhouette’s April Free shapes and one of the shapes was an egg pouch. I would love if you would (or if you’d let me) link to this project as an example of how to use the shape. Thanks! http://www.maggiemugginsdesigns.com/2012/05/silhouette-free-shape-blog-party.html

  3. 4) Shannon

    This is such a great idea! If the water takes too long to dry out, maybe try mixing the food coloring with vodka? It evaporates more quickly.

  4. 5) Krista

    Just had a thought. You mentioned that it is hard to get the rice around the islet? I wondered if you try this: cut out the eggs, put the two pieces together and punch the islet through. Sew the edges from the bottom around the islet and back to the bottom leaving an opening, then pour the rice in the egg “upside down” through a small funnel, if it would work better. Then hand stitch the hole closed, of course. Super cute idea!

  5. 6) jet

    cute and fun idea, like it, i think i will make them for next easter;-D
    thank you for the tute and the sharing;-D

  6. 7) Adel

    Wouldn’t they attract bugs and pests? Especially around where I live, tropical place.

  7. 8) SARA BOOTH

    I suggest if the rice is very wet or you live in a humid climate that you dry it out in the oven overnight. put it on oven safe dishes or on a sheet pan. Don’t turn the oven on. just turn on the light and it will keep the inside of the oven around 100 degrees. This will ensure that the rice will dry completely.

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