How to dye craft pasta

Craft pasta is so pretty,

 

and the possibilities are nearly endless!

It's easy to dye your own craft pasta. You'll need:

-- dry pasta
-- food coloring (squirty dropper-tubes, you know, the regular ol' fashioned kind)
-- newspaper to cover your surface
-- rubbing alcohol

Here's how you do it:

1. Protect your surface by laying out newspaper.

2. Splash a dab (about quarter-cup) of rubbing alcohol into a Ziploc baggie. Then squeeze in as many droplets of food coloring as you'd like, to get the desired color. (You'll see in the pictures above that Nora's rainbow is much lighter; that was the first batch of pasta. I wanted the colors darker, so I re-dyed the remaining pasta that night -- my husband was shaking his head at me -- and we made a brighter rainbow the next day. It all depends on how you like it!)

3. Toss in handfuls of pasta. Seal the bag. Shake it around to evenly distribute liquid.

4. Lay flat, turning bags over occasionally. If you want bright colors, use plenty of food coloring and let it sit for a while!

 

5. Shake the pasta directly onto the newsprint to dry. It dries quickly, within a couple of hours. Don't worry about separating each little piece of pasta because they break apart easily once fully dry.

You need to use the rubbing alcohol because it keeps the pasta from turning into mooshy, starchy goo. In fact, it has a great feel when it's finished. However, it is INEDIBLE. Make that clear to your kid, 'cause it looks like candy!

Now that we all know how to dye our own pasta, I'm going to look up all kinds of crafts that we can do with it.