Gold Leaf Easter Eggs

Every year I try to find a new way to decorate Easter eggs to keep it fun and interesting. Last year, we dyed Easter eggs naturally and I loved the beautiful, muted colors from the dye and the white and brown eggs. This year I knew I wanted to keep our eggs looking more natural again. While we will use the natural dye again, I also wanted them to feel a little sophisticated and glamorous. I think these beautiful Gold Leaf Easter Eggs achieved all of my ideas in one!

Working with gold leaf

If you’ve never worked with gold leaf before then I should tell you it can be a little bit finicky. It’s really delicate and almost flimsy. Applying it to anything can be a bit of an adventure. I’ve seen people be really exact when using it – on eggs or other projects. However, I personally think it’s best when it’s a bit erratic. Each egg looks like an individual piece of art.

Deciding on your eggs

To make Gold Leaf Easter Eggs you can use any kind of eggs you want. I used the real ones from our chickens and hardboiled them because I love the natural variation we get in the colors. But, I also used some pre-colored fake eggs too (The blue ones in this post.) so I could glam them up (and keep them forever and ever).

If you want to use real eggs, hard boil them first and then I’d recommend dying them with your favorite dye. I didn’t dye mine this time, but we are going to make them again and use my Natural Easter Egg Dye {HERE}.

If you want to use fake eggs you can use any kind – wood, plastic, etc. If they’re white you can paint them ahead of time.

Patience is required

You don’t need a lot of materials to make Gold Leaf Easter Eggs, but you do need some patience to get the results you want. It is for sure a craft project. Dry time is particularly important.

I’d say making Gold Leaf Easter eggs is more of an adult craft or something to do with a tween or teen. My daughter is dying to do it since I made the first batch while she was at school. But she’s patient and loves crafts. My son, who is 5, could never sit still for this.

Gold Leaf Easter Egg Supplies

You can see a full list of my supplies and some paint choices at my Amazon store {HERE}. Or, here are some of the individual items you need to make Gold Leaf Easter Eggs:

• 3 throw away paint brushes – 1 to paint the glue on with, 1 to remove the gold leaf with and 1 to layer back on some glue to get the gold leaf to stick well. You will need to discard the ones you added the glue on with when you’re done. I prefer a stencil brush for putting on the gold leaf itself to help it stick. 
• Gold Leaf Adhesive – You can find that {HERE}.
• Gold Leaf – You can get just regular Gold Leaf {HERE} or you can get gold lead, silver leaf and bronze leaf {HERE}. I actually bought them both for other projects.
• The eggs – real or fake
• Something to cover your workspace. I always use this kraft paper {HERE}.

How to make Gold Leaf Easter Eggs

1. Gather your eggs – fake painted ones or hard-boiled ones that have been dyed
2. Cover your work surface. I always like to use this brown kraft paper {HERE}. One roll lasts us forever and it’s perfect for all different kinds of projects.
3. Take your paint brush and begin to brush the glue onto an egg. You can add it on in patterns, completely cover it or randomly add it like I did. The glue will go on white and be runny.
4. When the glue starts to become translucent (about 30 seconds), you can then wrap your egg in gold leaf. I like to wrap the entire egg up and leave it. You can see a few examples of it in the video above.
5. Let your eggs with the gold leaf dry for about 30 minutes.
6. Once dry, use a larger brush to begin brushing away the gold leaf. Some places it flakes off really easily. Other places it won’t. Again, you can see how I did it in the video above.
7. Then use your third brush and go back over the remaining gold leaf with the glue. It will dry clear so don’t worry about really layering it on the egg.
8. Let the egg dry and then decorate with it!

I’m planning to use these in pour Easter tablescape and can’t wait to show you how they look. In the meantime, what do you think of this project, friends? Tell me in comments below!

Make sure to check out the recipes for the Natural Egg Dye {HERE} too!

Thank you so much for visiting today! I hope that you come back again to see what else we’re up to at Sugar Maple Farmhouse.