How we let nature dye our eggs

The past few years we have taken to Pinterest to find new and fun ways to dye our Easter Eggs. As a photographer I love taking the time to set up shots and document our egg dying adventures.  In 2012 the co-op that we use, Bountiful Baskets, had an egg dye kit of fruits and veggies. We decided to be adventurous, leave the Paas kit at the store and color our eggs a more natural way.

The kit came with a nice variety as well as some basic instructions. I went to Google & Pinterest to find out more info. This site gave easy instruction and a color chart: http://whatscookingamerica.net/Eggs/EasterEggDye.htm
Along with this is a pin from our good friend Martha Stewart: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/69242912990944165/
It didn't look too hard. Boil eggs, boil veggies, and then let the eggs soak in the liquid in the fridge.  We started with cabbage, strawberries, carrots, beets, broccoli, and then tea bags since I didn't have coffee in the house. 

I added enough water to each pot to just cover the fruit or veggies. Then I let them simmer on the stove until the water had a nice color.  Some didn't give off much color, like the carrots. Others gave off a color different than I expected, like the beets.

I then strained them and placed them into various cups and containers.  I added a few tablespoons of vinegar per container before adding the already boiled eggs.

Because I wanted the eggs to soak overnight, I stacked all the closed containers in the fridge and then we left for the day to go to the fair.  The next morning was Easter, so the "easter bunny" found our eggs in the fridge and hid them for the kids.

These are how our eggs turned out. I did find that the more we handled them, the more the color kind of rubbed away.  My favorite eggs are the bright blue, funny that these were the ones from the beets.
Have you tried any creative Easter Egg dye methods?

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