Updated with Version 1.15.2 Spawn Eggs
If your kids are bored of making “ordinary” dyed Easter eggs, I’ve got a cool idea for you: Minecraft Easter eggs!
This is an easy method to paint real hardboiled eggs or plastic Easter eggs to look like Minecraft Spawn Eggs. Dye the eggs a base color then use Sharpie Markers or Paint to draw a pattern of square spots.
Eggs are one of the few things in Minecraft that aren’t square, so they’re easy to reproduce with real chicken eggs. They come in a ton of colors and they’re pretty fun to make.
Hint: You can even craft your eggs from paper or plastic eggs so they last forever!
More Minecraft Craftiness!
Make a Plush Slime & Magma Cube
Make a REAL Redstone Lamp
Make a rolling Minecart for your action figures
Be a Creeper with this great Costume
Make Paper Minecraft Action Figures
Merry Minecraft Ornaments
Real growing Grass Blocks for your window sill
Mitch and I have been working on this idea all weekend, and we’ve dyed and painted almost two dozen eggs!
Works on Hard Boiled Eggs, Paper Eggs, Wooden Eggs and Plastic Eggs
We’ve tested our methods on both hard boiled eggs and fake eggs. I’m really liking the fake eggs because we don’t have to worry about putting them in the refrigerator! They can stay out on display all the time–a real bonus.
(Note: You can also get the eggs in Chalk Board Paint!)
What is a Minecraft Spawn Egg?
First, a little info for my non-gamer parents!
There are two kinds of eggs in Minecraft. One are plain ol’ chicken eggs, normal eggs that pop out of chickens. These are used in recipes to craft cake and pumpkin pie, and you can also throw them to make baby chickens.
Spawn eggs allow players to hatch (a.k.a. spawn) mobs at will. Mobs, in game terms, are any living creature that’s not the player.
Spawn eggs can produce monsters (zombies and creepers), friendly animals (sheep and pigs) or even…villagers. Yeah, it’s a weird game.
Below is a chart I’ve made of all the current (as of Feb. 2020) Minecraft spawn eggs from version 1.15.2. This includes new animal mobs like the Bee, Fox, Panda and Llama. We’re up to 60 spawn eggs now!
Feel free to print out this chart and use it as a reference guide if your kids want to make certain mobs. Otherwise, you can see the eggs inside the Creative Inventory while playing the game.
Spawn eggs are only available on Creative mode or some multiplayer servers. For example, we play at Cubeville.org where you can use in game credit to purchase spawn eggs to make pets or livestock for your farm.
Spawn Eggs are So Pretty!
As you can see, spawn eggs can be very pretty! Each color represents a different mob. My favorites are the Creeper, Shulker, Turtle and Wandering Trader. These colors really pop!
We decided that the blocks look a bit like Tetris pieces, so we used that as a basic guide when we made our own dyed Minecraft eggs. You can also decorate the eggs with squares if you get tired!
It’s hard to made a real three dimensional egg follow a flat pattern, so we just cover the egg with Tetris shapes until we’re happy with the final look.
There’s 60 spawn eggs with the release of version 1.15, so you might want to pick the most colorful eggs for your basket.
Spawn Egg Printable
I created a little coloring sheet you can print out and use to plan your eggs! Believe me, it’s a lot easier than squinting at the chart. Sorry I couldn’t make it bigger–its from a game screen shot so the colors are the most accurate!
Real Eggs: Use Dye, Crayon and Sharpies
For our real hard boiled eggs we used a combo of dye, crayon and Sharpie marker. Don’t use paint if you plan on eating your eggs!
There are two ways to decorate a real egg: dye and crayon resist or dye and Sharpie.
Dye and Crayon Resist: The easiest eggs to copy with traditional dye and crayon are those with light spots–you dye the egg the COLOR OF THE SPOTS, allow it to dry, then color the spot pattern with a white crayon. Give it a second dip the eggs in the “base color.”
I’ll be truthful, only our Blaze egg turned out looking well. We used yellow dye and crayon for the spots, then over dyed with orange.
Black eggs, like for an Enderman, didn’t work well with dye either. I picked up a special bottle of black dye and the egg only turned out brown. Blah!
Dye and Sharpie works the best. Simply dye your egg with the base color, then allow it to dry. Later, add spots with a Sharpie. This is still best with light colored base colors and dark spots. Think Creeper, Bee, Pig and Sheep for best results.
Paper/Wooden Eggs: Use Paint and Sharpies
The paper eggs won’t dye well (they float) so we used paint for the base and colorful Sharpie markers for the spots.
I found a really good method to get the paint on the egg, and not your fingers: use a sandwich bag!
Put your egg in the bag and squirt just a dab of paint on it…like a pea sized dollop. Zip up the bag and smoosh it around until the egg is covered. Open the bag and carefully place on a pin board to dry.
Now you can add spots with markers or paint.
Plastic Eggs: Just Use Sharpies
The plastic Easter eggs just need the Sharpies since they’re pre-colored. Yellow eggs are great for Bees and Blazes, Pink Eggs are good for pigs or Zombie Pigmen, orange eggs for Tropical Fish and of course green eggs make the best Creepers.
Here’s a Traditional Dye Recipe for You!
The best Easter egg dye is plain ol’ food coloring, vinegar and hot water. Not only does it work the best, it’s available all year! Why wait for Easter to make Minecraft eggs??
Food Coloring Dye Recipe
In a large mug:
- 2 tsp vinegar
- 1 cup boiling water
- 5 to 20 drops of dye
This is double the recipe found on your box of food coloring, but I like to make sure my eggs are totally submerged. Or maybe my coffee mugs are just too big. If you need help mixing the right color, Martha Stewart has a great chart here.
We found the best drying method is with a pin board! Placing the eggs in a paper ring or back in the carton leave marks. Make a pin board by pushing straight pins through a piece of cardboard or Styrofoam. Or you can tap a bunch of finishing nails into a board and use that!