so i am looking for an easy way to get 2 toned buttercream swirls i saw a video on you tube and the person doing it took some buttercream on a plastic board added a drop or  2 of food coloring then kinda took and offset spatual and smooshed it all together then he put it into the piping bag then kinda mushed it all together with the bag so the inside would be covered then he added in buttercream and it came out two toned. 

the second video i saw was the guy took a yellow color and put it on one side of the bag then he took a pink color and put it on the other side of the bag the two colors meshed together and when he was done it also came out two toned

what is the better method as i neded to make 4th of july cupcakes

I think this is the easiest, least messy way to get the two-tone frosting! HTH

http://www.ourbestbites.com/2011/08/tutorial-how-to-swirl-colored-icing-for-cupcakes/

Actually either way is fine.   Personally I like the 2nd method - two colors put into one bag.

On ly problem w/this is if you don't put enough icing into the bag to finish the project the 1st time it gets all smooished together and looks really sloppy when you add more until you get that much out of the bag.  you could always use another bag to prevent that rather then adding more.

AI like the second way best. If I know I need the two colors for a different part of the project, I'll put then in separate bags then put them together in a third bag to give it the two toned, swirling effect. This way also makes it easy to refill the bag if with out the colors smooshing together. Other times I'll wrap each color in plastic wrap, cut off one end of each color, and put it in the piping bag. I normally do it this way if I need 3 or more colors. I hope that makes sense lol

http://cakecentral.com/t/588591/newlywedws-frosting-plug-plastic-wrap-method

This is my favorite way of doing it. When you need two colors, just use two plugs. Far less mess.

ok i think i am going to go with the 2 bag method it looks very easy. do you know how many cupcakes it will pipe i am going to do a basic swirl for 24 cupcakes would i have to refill at least once on that method?

Depends on how much frosting and how big the bag is. And yes, you will probably have to refill unless you have a huge bag.

i have the biggest dispoables you can get at michaels i think its the 16 inch bags i know if i go to the cake supply store i can get 18 inch bags but shes on vacation 

You may just want to re-fill, some of those giant bags get harder to pipe with if they're really full and heavy...or I'm just a wimp...

it worked out perfect i used the 3 bag method and came out amazing with all this hot weather we have on the east coast new england area even with the ac cranked on high my piped frosting was getting soft on me so a quick visit to the fridge for 20 minutes solved that. then i took them out drizzled dark chocolate red white and blue stars and sprinkles and a cherry on top the two tones were blue and white for the 4th. i can never get my red to come out right so i just stuck with blue and white 

ABit late, but I got some piping bags bought for me that are split into two, no faffing about just make 2 separate colours, put one in one side an the other in the other side, the icing tip is already split in two. I live in the UK but this was bought from Lakeland.... I personally don't like it. Its a farse cleaning the bag after and I really don'[t like plastic nozzles!

http://www.lakeland.co.uk/16656/Lakeland-Duo-Colour-Icing-Kit