Rainbow Pasta Art

Are you ready for a beautiful art project?

This was a huge hit with everyone, but I think mostly with myself! I don't know why I didn't try this sooner. Following instructions on Many Little Blessings, I spent one evening dying pasta. I had all kinds -- wagon wheels, bowties, macaroni, penne, fettuccine... Once you have your pasta, you'll need ziploc baggies, rubbing alcohol, and food coloring. The website said to use 1/4 cup alcohol to 1-2 cups of pasta. Honestly, I only measured the first time. After that I just poured in what looked right. I put the alcohol in the baggie. I had the baggie in a mixing bowl so it would stand up better and that way if I spilled, it would stay in the bowl. (I know I took pictures of all the steps, but I can't find them anywhere!) Then I put in several drops of food coloring. Once it was all mixed, I added the pasta, sealed it up, and swished everything around. I was worried because I was short on time. I only had time to flip the bags once (after 30 minutes). So after an hour (30 minutes on each side), I cut a corner off the bottom of each bag and drained out the extra alcohol. I dried the pasta on top of paper towels on top of cookie sheets on top of old bath and kitchen towels. Follow that? This is why I need to find my pictures! I had all the pasta drying on the floor of my guest bedroom. It was the only way to keep the cats away. So that's why I needed towels underneath the cookie sheets. I didn't want any colored splotches on my carpet. Anyway, I was happy with the results of only an hour of soaking. They turned out well. The kids in my class could make whatever they wanted with the pasta. They glued their creations onto white paper.

Aren't they beautiful? Actually, they are much prettier in person. The good news is I made way too much for this one project, so we can do it several more times.
By the way, I decided to leave one bag of pasta soaking overnight, just to see how much more of the color was absorbed. The next morning it didn't look any darker and the pasta was kind of mushy, so I threw it away. I wouldn't recommend that.