This past Mother’s Day, I decided that I wanted my preschool co-op class to work on a project for their Moms. So many of the kids have never been to traditional school, so their Moms had never been the recipients of handmade projects.
I really kept wavering about what I should make with them, but then I thought of the fun, inexpensive, and educational (great fine motor practice, as well as math for patterns) craft of pasta necklaces.
Here’s what you need to dye your own pasta for a variety of crafts (you can also dye rice with this same method for crafts or sensory tables):
1. Pasta — there are lots of great shapes that can be used. Just keep in mind what you’re doing, and that will help guide you.
Because I was doing necklaces with young kids, I went with only rigatoni noodles.
(After a comment on this post, I wanted to point out two quick things. It was suggested in the comments that this could be an even more frugal project if store brand pasta is used. That is definitely true, so keep that in mind! However, also be sure to check out the brand name boxes too. When I bought these, they were actually on sale and were cheaper than the store brand.)
2. Rubbing Alcohol — You’ll need around 1/4 cup of this for every cup or two of pasta, so make sure you have enough rubbing alcohol at home.
3. Large Ziploc bags — make sure you have a brand that seals well. I actually double up my bags to even further reduce the risk of leakage.
4. Liquid Food Coloring — Make sure you have a few different colors, if you are dyeing a variety of colors of pasta. (And, remember, you can mix colors to create new ones.)
Get your zip bag and add 1/4 cup rubbing alcohol and around 10 drops of food coloring (can do more, if you want) and swish it around. Then, add 1 – 2 cups of pasta into the bag.
Truth be told, I think I added about 1/2 cup of rubbing alcohol to these bags (plus double the amount of food coloring) and then just filled the bag with pasta.
Really move the pasta around in the bags, then lay them out flat (still in the bags). I put the bags on a foil lined cookie sheet, just in case there were spills.
Allow the pasta to sit in the ziploc bags. I flipped them over every 30 minutes for a couple of hours. I probably could have let them sit for longer and flipped them over less, but I loved looking at the colors as they got deeper and more vibrant.
The longer you let them sit in the bags, the deeper and more vibrant they will become.
When you have your desired color, drain the colored alcohol out of the bag, and then set the pasta out to dry.
I put newspaper on my foil lined cookie sheets, and then put the pasta down on them in sections. (You know, a green section, an orange section, etc.)
I let them dry like that overnight, and then packed them up to take to co-op in baggies the next day.
The kids loved making necklaces for their Moms, and every had to ask me how to dye their own pasta. (Quick Tip: When making necklaces with young kids, it is easiest for them if one side of the yarn is taped down to the table.)
Each child also decorated a paper bag for their Moms to use as “gift wrap.”
Having never received these kinds of handmade kid gifts, I actually even had several Moms who told me that they wore their beautiful and bright necklaces to Mass on Mother’s Day!
This is a fun, easy, and frugal craft for Moms (with the dyeing) and kids!
This post is linked to Works for Me Wednesday.
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{ 21 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks this worked great m,my kids loved it! We used it on ceramics!
Thanks for posting this, your directions are very easy to follow and they come out really nice.
Excellent! I’m glad that they came out well!
Hi, Thanks for these instructions. They are so clear and easy to follow. Just wondering if the pasta sticks together at all while drying.
Ashley – No, they don’t stick together. They are still hard and just the same texture that they were when they were all in the box together.
Great! Just wanted to make sure before I laid them out to dry and didn’t give them enough space so they all stuck together.
I just found this and we are SO doing this! HOW COOL IS THIS!!!
Totally made my day!
Doing a kids craft table at our local event and I needed to figure out how to dye pasta, thanks so much for the instructions! They are on cookie sheets being colored now!
Am dying pasta for my inhome daycare. Found your site and loved the pictures! How would you go about doing rice? Same amounts of liquid? Thanks so much!
Jaime – Thanks so much for the compliment!
I haven’t dyed rice before, but if I were doing it, I would do it the same way. Although, if you’re putting a lot of rice in the bag, I would keep the same ratio of alcohol and food coloring, but I would put in more.
Good luck!
Just did this, and other than an early ziploc blowout, it worked well. A few suggestions: #1 Don’t use the slide to lock type of bags as the liquid eventually leaks out the zipper. #2 FREEZER bags a must, not the thinner ones. #3 It is VERY difficult to get red colors instead of pink (I used double the amount of red dye and it still looked medium pink) but all the other colors worked well. #4 Wear latex gloves, as dye on your hands seems to be inevitable, no matter how careful you are. Thanks for the idea!!
Monica -
Agreed – I wouldn’t use the zipper kind, as they do not seal as well. I think that regular (non-freezer) bags work fine, but that’s why I doubled mine up (as mentioned). I’ve never gotten dye on my hands when I’ve done it, but I don’t touch the pasta until it’s dry.
I haven’t tried red before, but I could see how it would be hard to get it to actually get nice and red.
Glad that you had good luck, other than a blow out.
I was looking for a way to do this for garland for our Christmas tree! This is perfect thank you so much!!
I never knew how to dye pasta and quickly found this website. Mine is outside drying right now and it looks great! That was super easy. I made red (looks like red) and green to do festive lacing activities with my toddler.
I used the regular cheapo walmart brand bags and they worked fine (didn’t even double bag). No problems getting dye anywhere other than where it should be. I probably used less alcohol than you call for and quite a bit more food coloring, but it was very intuitive. I’d definitely do it again and make some more colors. I’m going to be on the hunt for fun pasta shapes from now one.
What a quick and easy way to dye pasta. My 4th grader had “pasta necklace day” for spirit week this week. The pasta turned out so bright and pretty. One suggestion for others: purple turned out black, and when I tried to make a different shade it turned out kind of a rose. I probably will stick to blue, red (pinkish, but definitely a shade of red), orange, yellow, and green. They were great. I will be doing this with my toddler story hour group very soon. Thank you.
Oh, I didn’t measure at all, just put enough liquid to get everything wet and the drops of color to the shade I liked. I used the Wilton icing colors (concentrated gel) for some, and liquid for others. Both worked well, but the gel is less messy.
Love your website! I’m a Pre K teacher and I need a quick idea to for making jewelry necklaces. I googled “how to dye pasta” and your websit was the first on the list. The instructions were easy to follow. My pasta has been soaking for about an hour and the colors look fabulous! THANKS!
Oh by the way, I used the Great Value slide freezer bags and I had some leakage. Other than that, it was a simple process!
I’m so glad that you were able to find the direction and that they seem to be working well for you. I hope your students have a wonderful time with it!
Is there any chance of the colors staining clothing or hands once the pasta has dried?
I can’t promise what will happen if it gets wet (though I don’t believe it would be an issue), but just for regular use, there isn’t any staining once it’s dry.
This is so awesome! I am a grade one teacher and one hundred day is quickly approaching…In the past years I have had the kids make necklaces with fruit loops but they always end up eating them as they are counting to 100 and then their fingers get all sticky as well…so this year we are opting for macaroni necklaces and I had no idea how to dye them but so far so good! Thank you so much!
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