How to Decorate and Paint Wooden Easter Eggs

Learn how to paint and decorate wooden Easter eggs for Easter egg hunts, Easter baskets, and DIY spring home decor.

Learn how to decorate wooden Easter eggs with the simple egg craft tutorial below. Decorated wooden Easter eggs are a fun, eco-friendly alternative to traditional hard-boiled and plastic candy-filled eggs. Children love to hunt wooden Easter eggs on Easter egg hunts and find them in their Easter baskets on Easter mornings as much as plastic or hard-boiled, decorated Easter eggs.

Wooden Easter eggs also make gorgeous DIY spring home decor and look lovely displayed throughout the home or on a spring nature table. Many people also like decorating wooden eggs as part of spring equinox celebrations. Scroll down to learn how to decorate wooden eggs with watercolors and a wood-burning pen or paint pens!

Related: Easter Traditions to Start with Your Family

Related: Watercolor Surprise Easter Egg Art

How to Decorate Wooden Easter Eggs with a Woodburning Pen and Watercolor Paints:

Wooden Easter Egg crafts are an eco-friendly, non-candy alternative to plastic candy-filled Easter Eggs. And they are also sustainable Easter egg crafts that you can reuse year after year. Wooden Easter eggs can become treasured heirloom keepsakes to pass down from generation to generation.

The decorated wooden Easter eggs below were made with a woodburning pen (wood burner, wood etching pen, or woodburning pencil) and watercolor paints. Working with a woodburning pen is as easy as drawing with a hot pencil, similar to adult coloring. This makes painting and decorating wooden eggs an excellent way to relieve stress while creating something beautiful.

Alternatively, you can use paint pens to decorate wooden Easter Eggs. Click the link for even more wooden Easter egg decorating ideas. Or, make these super cute Easter Chick Easter Eggs with a woodburning pen or paint pens.

Related: How to Make an Easter Tree

DIY Wooden Easter Eggs Supplies:

• Pencil (optional)
• Wooden Eggs (choose at least one of the following):
  • Wooden eggs
  • Standing wooden eggs with a flat bottom
  • White wood eggs.
• Wood etching tool or paint pens (choose at least one of the following):
  • Versa-Temp Variable Temperature Control Woodburner
  • Multi-colored paint pens
  • Pastel paint pens
  • Black and white paint pens
• Watercolor paints (if you are not using paint pens to color the wooden eggs, choose one of the following):
  • Watercolor 12-Tube Set 
  • Liquid Watercolors
  • Watercolor pallet
• Watercolor paintbrush set (if using watercolors to paint wooden eggs)
• Sealant with a Foam Brush

Related: Cute Spring Chick Craft Ideas

How to Decorate Wooden Easter Eggs with a Wood Burning Tool and Paint Them with Watercolors: Step-by-Step DIY Wood Easter Egg Decorating Instructions:

Use the step-by-step instructions below to decorate gorgeous wooden eggs for Easter.

1. Pencil designs onto wooden Easter eggs (optional):

• Use a pencil to draw simple designs onto wooden eggs before painting or using a woodburning pen. This step is optional. You can also freehand your decorations onto the wooden eggs with paint pens or a woodburning tool.
• Some examples include jagged, straight, and wiggly vertical and horizontal lines, flowers, hearts, polka dots, and simple pictures.
• For more ideas, look at paint pen Easter egg decorating ideas.

2. Use a woodburning pen or paint pens to create designs on wooden Easter eggs:

• Trace penciled designs or freehand drawings directly onto wooden Easter eggs with extra-fine tip paint pens or a wood-burning pen.
  • Use the pinky finger of your dominant hand to help stabilize the wooden egg as you work.
• If you use a wood etching pen, take proper safety precautions around children. Woodburning pencils are hot and dangerous tools!
• We also recommend practicing if you have never used a woodburning pen.
• If you offer this wooden egg craft to an older child or teen, it’s best to teach them how to use a woodburning pen safely and supervise them as they work.

3.  Paint wooden Easter eggs with paint pens or watercolors to add color to Easter egg designs (optional):

• Use extra fine-tip paint pens or watercolors to fill in wooden Easter egg decorations with the step-by-step Easter Egg decorating tutorials below.
• I used watercolor tubes to decorate the DIY wooden Easter Eggs shown in the photographs.
• Using the same process, I also made these adorable Easter Chicks.
• Watercolor paint tubes and liquid watercolors are concentrated and provide the most vibrant colors. However, a watercolor paint palette can also be used.
• Painting wood with watercolors is easy; the color soaks right into the wood and fills in designs almost effortlessly.

How to Decorate Wooden Easter Eggs with Paint Pens:

• Head over to see all the fun paint pen Easter egg decorating ideas we came up with.

Painting Wooden Easter Eggs with Watercolors in a Tube:

1. Squeeze a small amount into a small container or onto a paint pallet, glass, or paper plate; you won’t need much.
2. Dip a watercolor paintbrush into a glass with water to get the brush wet, then dab it onto an old washcloth or paper towel.
3. Load a paintbrush with watercolor paint.
4. Brush the watercolor paint onto the wooden eggs to decorate them.

How to Paint Wooden Easter Eggs with a Watercolor Paint Palette:

1. Dip a paintbrush into a glass with water to get the brush wet, then dab it onto an old washcloth or paper towel.
2. Put the paintbrush in the watercolor palette to grab a color. Brush the color a few times to load the chosen paint color onto the brush.
3. Paint the color onto the wooden egg.

How to Paint Wooden Easter Eggs with Liquid Watercolors:

1. You do not need to use water unless you want to mute or tone down the colors.
2. Dip your brush straight into the concentrated watercolors and paint, or dip each wooden egg directly into the liquid watercolor paint to color it.

4.  Seal and Protect Decorated Wooden Easter Eggs (optional):

• Sealing and protecting decorated wooden eggs is necessary if you want the colors to last, especially if you plan to use them for Easter egg hunts, because the paint colors can run if they get a little wet.
• We decorated the wooden Easter eggs in the photographs with watercolors several years ago and used a food-safe beeswax to seal the color. However, I don’t recommend using beeswax if you want lasting, vibrant colors because the colors of our decorated wooden Easter eggs have gradually faded since we made them in 2015.
• Today, I recommend using a sealant with a foam brush if you want longer-lasting, vibrant colors.

Related: Fun Easter Traditions to Start

4 Fun Ways to Use Wooden Easter Eggs:

1. Use them to decorate your house with spring home decor by placing Wooden Easter Eggs on your mantle, tables, or Spring Nature Tables.
2. Put wooden Easter eggs in Easter baskets.
3. Hide wooden eggs for Easter egg hunts. Wooden Easter eggs are much better for our environment and children’s health than plastic eggs filled with candy!
4. Use decorated wooden eggs with egg cups for a great developmental activity for babies and toddlers aged six months to two years. I would have never guessed my daughter’s love affair with wooden eggs and egg cups. Allow your baby to practice putting a wooden egg into an egg cup and taking it out again for an excellent hand-eye coordination activity that toddlers love!

Painting Decorated Wooden Eggs for Easter:

Decorated wooden Easter eggs are a fun and easy Easter egg craft project for kids, teens, and adults. Kids love to hunt wooden Easter eggs down on Easter egg hunts as much as they like to find them in their Easter Baskets.

Decorated wooden eggs are a fantastic, easy, eco-friendly, non-candy alternative to plastic Easter eggs. Many people also like to make wooden eggs as part of their spring equinox celebrations.

Wooden Easter eggs also make gorgeous DIY spring home decor and look lovely displayed throughout the home or on a spring nature table. Hop over to look at our Easter chick wooden eggs and the other unique wooden egg craft ideas you can make for Easter.

Don’t forget to look at our spring bucket list and these fun family Easter traditions.

Learn more about this craft’s author, photographer, and creator, Nell Regan Kartychok, and Rhythms of Play HERE!

If You Liked This Wooden Easter Egg Craft, You Might Also Enjoy:

• How to Make an Easter Tree
• DIY Easter Ornaments
• How to Color Natural Brown Eggs
• 25+ Upcycled Easter Baskets