I’m always looking for ways that my vegan kids can decorate eggs for Easter without dyeing real hen’s eggs. This particular method works great on plastic eggs!

I set out a few eggs (from Eco Eggs), and Veronika first wanted to explore them, of course. She loved the way they opened and closed, and that favorite toys could nest inside. While she played, I cut small squares of tissue paper in pastel colors.

Pour a little white glue into a small paper cup and add water to thin it slightly. I showed Veronika how to brush this glue mixture on the eggs, and she was quickly an expert.

Now the tissue paper sticks easily, making the eggs look almost like stained glass. We learned quickly, though, that our first egg came out the best. That’s because the more we worked, the more gluey our fingers became, and the tissue tender either to wad up on the egg, or stick to us!

Of course, this only made Veronika gleeful about her pink fingers.

For an easy way to dry the eggs, snip an empty toilet paper tube into a few segments and place the eggs upright until the glue is dry.

This fun toddler-friendly craft results in a beautiful Easter bunting to hang for the holiday! To start, you’ll need to paint several sheets of thick white paper. I wanted to paint these in pretty pastels, so mixed a little white paint into pink, light blue, and light green for an even softer spring effect.

Invite your toddler to come paint! Veronika wanted to use a sponge like a stamp, delighting in the oval she made with each press down onto the paper. Between her stamping and my help with a paintbrush, we soon had three pretty painted pages.

Of course there needed to be some exploratory hand-dipping in the paint, too! I left the pages to dry overnight, then traced an egg shape onto them in the morning and cut 4 eggs from each color.

I set the egg shapes out on a tray along with a few bits to decorate them (a.k.a. a “creation station”). Choices included cut up Easter-themed cupcake liners, squares of yellow tissue paper, and pieces of pink construction paper. Lace doilies would be pretty too, whether cut into strips or small pieces.

It’s up to your toddler to decide how to decorate! I set out a plate of glue that Veronika could smear liberally over each egg so that any scrap pieces she pressed down would stick.

She also liked trying to brush the glue directly onto the decorative bits, or otherwise exploring the materials in a sensory way. She tired out from decorating about halfway through the eggs.

That meant our final bunting alternated a plain painted egg with a decorated one, which actually was a nice effect.

Once the glue dried, I attached the eggs to a string and suspended the bunting above the kids’ table.