Pasta Beads

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The other night I was making spaghetti for dinner and as I poured out the noodles into my hand they unexpectedly came spilling out all over the place.  I decided to turn lemons into lemonade and called my kids into the kitchen for a game of pick up sticks.  My daughter was appalled that I was just going to throw away all these uncooked spaghetti noodles and suggested we use them for a craft.  What a great idea!  For years I have been meaning to color pasta with my kids and decided this was the perfect opportunity.

Along with the spaghetti noodles I pulled out of the pantry some almost empty boxes of pasta and we got to work coloring them.

To color pasta you'll need your noodles, plastic ziploc bags, food dye, and rubbing alcohol.

Place your pasta in the plastic ziploc bags and add 3-4 drops of food coloring and 1 tablespoon of alcohol.

Make sure your bag is sealed well and then shake it up so that each piece gets coated

Pour you pasta onto a tray lined with paper towel to dry.  Be careful because the food coloring can stain while still wet.  Make sure your pasta is very dry before working with it.

Once the pasta was dry we were ready to play with our new beads.

My kids had a great time stringing their beads together.  Some randomly, some in a pattern.

Simple.  Fun.