I didn't even know this was a holiday, but yes there actually is a National Macaroni Day. So we decided to celebrate with colored macaroni (okay I didn't have macaroni so we used shaped pasta) necklaces.
How To Color Dried Macaroni
We used alcohol, food coloring, shaped dried pasta, yarn and a yarn needle (or bobby pin works great too as a needle).
Place pasta in a Ziploc bag, fill with alcohol until pasta is covered. Add lots of food coloring. Close bags and let them sit until the pasta is the color you want (we did about 5 minutes).
Carefully remove pasta from bags and allow to completely dry.
Thread pasta shapes onto yarn. Tie one of the pasta shapes at the end to stop the others from falling off.
String all the pasta onto the yarn....
Fasten ends together when finished and proudly wear for National Macaroni Day!
Awe this is so fun! I remember doing these in playschool. I wish I had time to today to do this! Thanks for the reminder though Cindy.
Wow the colours are really vibrant. I have always loved crafts made with pasta. My father kept my grade one pencil holder juice can glued with painted pasta shells on well into my late teens, and by then I think it had seen it’s day come and go.
I have never seen pasta dyed using alcohol – where and why did you come up with this amazing idea?
Just a quick tip ~ It is very important to use the alcohol when coloring the pasta as it sets the color and it will not fade.. As a teacher once we made necklaces, then went swimming, came back put on necklaces and they ran all over the kids clothes and ruined a very expensive Christmas dress of one of the lil girls…. which I had to pay for… so dont take a shortcut here.. or you could have a disaster!! :O)
Those are stunning!!! Love them!!!
Very pretty.
Hey we’re eating macaroni in our evening meal tonight, so our tummy’s can celebrate Macaroni day too.
I LOVE this idea! We normally use regular beads when making necklaces but this is MORE creative and different. The colors are so cool and bright. My kids love to see how things are made so I will definitely be sure to ‘color’ the pasta in front of them. Think we’ll also make pictures using these. Thanks for the idea. I will be posting a link to your blog on my site.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by My Little Red, Breck, The Baby Kottage. The Baby Kottage said: Did you know it's National Macaroni Day? Thanks Teach Preschool for the link… http://fb.me/CJUDiiGE [...]
[...] National Macaroni Day. I had no idea, but I’m glad that Cindy at Skip to My Lou knew and that she posted this fun tutorial for coloring dried pasta to use in crafts. I used to love stringing up dried pasta necklaces as a kid, but our method of smothering them in [...]
What kind of alcohol? Isopropyl or the drinking kind?
LOL – how funny! But what a fun craft! I will have to do that with my girls!
XOXO
Jen
I’m embarrassed to ask this, but what kind of alcohol? Rubbing alcohol? Something like vodka???
Sorry to be obtuse, but when you say ‘alcohol’, what do you mean? Rubbing alcohol, vodka, methylated spirits? Something different?
Quick question, does alcohol mean “rubbing alcohol”? I would love to do this with my kids. Thanks!
I used rubbing alcohol. You can see what my bottle looked like in the picture above. I hope this helps!
[...] used to dye macaroni when I worked at the day care. It’s a fun summer craft if your children are looking for [...]
Thank you so much I’ve always wanted to know how to do this.
We recently dyed rice much like this, but I used vinegar (found various ideas online). It seemed more natural in case of children accidentally ingesting some. Wonder if it would work for this too…
[...] at Skip to My Lou dyed uncooked macaroni to use for necklaces and other [...]
Thanks so much for this! I was finally able to do this last night and it came out great. I let some pieces soak overnight and the colors are amazing! I just wish my kids were as excited about making pasta jewelry as I was about dying the pasta.