Pretty Pasta

This last weekend our internet was out for 48 hours which ended up being a total blessing. I am well aware that too much of my "down time" is spent on the internet but having absolutely no access to it reminded me just how much time it can steal in my day. The blessing in it all was that I took full advantage of my time and did things like prep food for the upcoming week, tackle some projects I had been meaning to get around to, as well as creating some fun crafts with my kids.

I had recently snagged a free subscription to FamilyFun magazine which is put out by Disney. If you have the opportunity to get this, you should! I wasn't sure what to expect but when my first issue came I was instantly hooked. There are lots of great craft ideas for kids that are easy, inexpensive and totally fun.

One of the craft projects we did this last weekend was from the August issue and it was called Pretty Pasta. It involved dyeing pasta and then using it to make colorful necklaces. My oldest son helped my dye the noodles while my middle son napped and when he woke they were dry and ready to be strung on necklaces. It was lots of fun and they are already asking if we can do it again and create new colors. I think next time we are going to glue the pasta together to make animal sculptures.

Here is what you need:
dried pasta (I used rigatoni, it would be fun to use different shapes and sizes)
vinegar
food coloring

That's it! For each color you want to create use a Ziploc bag to mix 2 tsps vinegar with 10-12 drops of food coloring. Then add 1/2 cup of pasta and shake to cover. Let these sit for 5 minutes, shaking occasionally.

We tried green, blue, and red

Adding the pasta

All shook up

This is what it looks like during the 5 minutes. Don't worry, it gets brighter when it drys.

Next you want to remove the pasta from the bags and let them dry on paper towels. After 15 minutes, turn the pieces over and leave them until completely dry.

Once they are dry you are ready to string them. Take your first piece of pasta and tie it onto one end of the string and then let your little one string the rest on in any order they please. This is such great work for little hands and older kids will have fun playing with different shapes and colors to make patterns.

See how bright the colors got once they dried?

The finished product - don't mind the outfit, we had a pajama day (but the shirt does match the necklace!)

I am excited because my September issue of the magazine arrived today so I am sure there will be more kids crafts in our near future. What kinds of crafty projects have you been doing with your kids lately?