Easter Egg Decorating Ideas: Family Photo Easter Eggs {With Video!}

3-minute, No-Mess Easter Egg Decorating Ideas with Temporary Tattoos! Learn how to make adorable DIY temporary tattoos and then learn how to use them as Easter egg decorating ideas with this step-by-step guide…

I’ve got the coolest tip to share with you EVER. Did you know that you can make your own DIY temporary tattoos? Do you feel like you’ve been living in the dark ages without this?

Maybe I’m the one living in the dark ages because I had NO idea until a few days ago that you could buy blank sheets of temporary tattoo paper. Who knew?

Well I, for one, am pretty stoked about this news because now there are so many fun, easy holiday crafts I’m going to be making (and taking you along for the ride too!). PLUS, the April fools opportunities here could be pretty epic. Just sayin’.

I’m thinking MONSTER sized back tat with adoring hubby’s face??

Today, however, we are sticking with Easter egg decorating ideas, and this DIY temporary tattoo craft is PERFECT.

Mess-Free Easter Egg Decorating Ideas for Kids with DIY Temporary Tattoos

Here is the first of what I’m sure will be many-a-fun tattoo-utilizing crafts: Family photo Easter eggs.

Last week, I pulled together my favorite Easter egg ideas from across the web and one idea I knew I wanted to try was the photo eggs that were made by Victoria at A Subtle Revelry.

They are precious and she used a different technique than the one I’m going to show you today. Her technique is super industrious and doesn’t require this type of paper, so definitely check it out as another option!

I did try one other transfer method before settling on using the temporary tattoo paper. It involved using freezer paper for transferring the image.

The image transferred, but not well. At. All.

Then, low and behold, I found an article that Country Living published showing one of their editors making some eggs with temporary tattoo paper. THAT image quality was awesome.

So after the less than stellar outcome using the freezer paper, I decided to go ahead and buy some tattoo paper, and I’m oh so glad that I did.

Would you prefer to learn by watching rather than reading? Grasp the whole process without reading ONE MORE WORD simply by watching this one-minute video↴.

And here are the supplies and materials you’ll need to give this spring craft a go!

How to Create Photo Temporary Tattoos to Decorate Easter eggs

This easy-peasy process will give you beautiful custom Easter egg designs faster than you can say “DIY temporary tattoo”. Ok, maybe not QUITE that fast, but the entire process only takes 3 minutes…so ALMOST that fast!

1. Create a document on a computer with your desired image(s).

The one negative about this blank temporary tattoo paper is that it’s pricey. And, it’s really a one-shot deal. Once you print on it and cut out your desired images, I don’t think it’s feasible to re-print onto the same page again.

With that in mind, I decided to jam-pack my 8.5 x 11 sheet of tattoo paper with EVERY image that I could possibly imagine I’d want to put on an Easter egg…waste not, want not, right?

I used Word to create my image document. It’s pretty easy to add images to the publishing view. I even used a cool feature that I hadn’t tried before in Word: the option to “remove background” which you can find under the “format picture” tab.

I used the “remove background” feature to pull the faces of the kids away from their backgrounds in the images I chose. Doing this really made a difference in making the images cleaner when I transferred them onto the eggs.

PLEASE…print a test page (on regular paper) before you go ahead and print your images onto the actual temporary tattoo paper. Those sheets are too expensive to mess up!

2. Place the Plastic Covering onto Tattoo Paper

You’ll get these same instructions with the tattoo paper you purchase. I used this brand!

Once I printed my page out, I had to take the plastic adhesive and apply it on top of the printed images (it only takes a few seconds). Then, I smoothed the plastic down with a credit card.

3. Cut Out Your DIY Tattoo(s)

The tattoos will turn out best if you stay really tight to your image as you cut. Doing this will take a few extra minutes, so I recommend planning ahead to allow time for precise cutting. 

If you run out of time, honestly, just do what you can do…it’s not going to turn out horribly if you cut corners…or I guess don’t cut corners, in this case?

4. Apply Your DIY Temporary Tattoo to Your Egg

Before applying the tattoo, make sure your eggs are room temperature. I tried a couple on eggs that came straight out of the fridge, and NONE of the tattoos on the cold eggs turned out well. 

Grab a little bowl of water and a washcloth. Make sure the washcloth is SOAKING wet.

Truly, the wetter, the better.

Place the tattoo face-down on your egg in the desired location. DON’T LET IT MOVE AROUND. 

Holding it still, soak the back of the tattoo. Don’t rub. Just blot. Continue wetting and blotting until the paper naturally separates from the tattoo.

Remember: this process works WAY better on room temperature eggs, for some reason.

That’s it!

Aren’t these Easter eggs adorable? This is one of my (current) favorite Easter egg decorating ideas because they are SO custom and adorable.

Check Out These Additional Easter Egg Ideas

You can try a couple of versions of these tattoo paper Easter eggs. One cute variation is using vintage images of spring farm animals.

Sources for these free images are included in the post:

You could also try these lovely Easter eggs with classic Christian Easter images:

Happy Easter!