Pasta Beads

Would you believe me if I told you that these are noodles? Crazy, huh?!

Over the weekend, I stayed at my parents for a night and we made these for my little sisters. They love beads, but most beads aren't very cheap. Especially when most of the time they spill all over, leaving half of them to get swept up and thrown in the garbage anyway. Using this site as inspiration, we turned a whole box of pasta rings into colored "beads". That's a super cheap and fun craft! 

And, like my mom said, it's nice that these beads are made from pasta just in case you have little ones that like to slip things into their mouths. (Obviously, we wouldn't recommend that since they do contain rubbing alcohol, but it's probably better than chunks of plastic sitting in your baby's belly.)

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Directions

Start by lining large pans with aluminum foil. Gather your pasta (we used rings, but you can use whatever you'd like), baggies, food coloring, and rubbing alcohol.

Pour 1 Tbsp rubbing alcohol and a few drops food coloring to each bag. I probably squirted about 5-10 drops per bag. 

(Our rubbing alcohol was also pre-colored green so our colors are a little more muted. Some comments I've read say that coloring gels give the most vibrant colors, but we were happy with ours!)

Pour about 1/2 cup uncooked pasta into each bag. 

(If the ratios aren't exact, that's okay. Just make sure you have enough liquid to coat the pasta evenly.)

Seal the bag and shake it up until the color is evenly distributed.

Snip a small corner of the bag and drain out the excess liquid.

Dump pasta onto prepared pans and spread into one layer. (Try not to let them touch each other too much.) Let dry at least one hour or overnight.

Once dry, you will be able to make pasta pictures, jewelry, or whatever else tickles your fancy. 

Have fun!