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Painting Pasta to Thread

Posted on August 27, 2013 16 Comments

I’m sure you all know that you can dye pasta to use for crafts or sensory play, but did you also know you can paint pasta?

Get the kids involved in painting pasta for threading, for crafts, or as a sensory tub filler. It’s a simple and fun process art activity for kids of all ages!

Painting pasta to thread - this was so much fun and the cool fluro pasta made great necklaces!

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There are a few ways to colour pasta so that you can play or create with it, but most of them have the adult doing the colouring. This simple method of painting pasta gets the kids involved in coloring the pasta.

Painting pasta is a quick and easy way to add colour to pasta that you can then use for lots of different things!

fluor coloured painted pasta on white background

How to Paint Pasta.

I wanted some coloured pasta for my toddler to thread, but I also had older kids who were bored, so to answer both problems we gave painting pasta a try!

Turns out, painting pasta is lots of fun, and this was one of those magical activities that everyone loved, no matter there age!

two bowls of tube pasta, fluro water colour paints, container of water and brushes

To paint your own pasta you’ll need:

  • Pasta of any size and shape – we used tubes because we wanted it for threading.
  • Water colour paints – we used fluro tempera discs similar to these.
  • Paint brushes
  • Water to wash your brush.
  • Art smocks/ Aprons and something to cover your work surface.

Cover your work surface and make sure you have lots of space to put your painted pasta to dry, then simply give your kids a pile of pasta and a paint brush and let their creativity run wild!

Painting pasta to thread - easy art for everyone!

Older kids will love using smaller brushes and painting designs and fine details in larger pasta, and younger kids will just love being able to add colours to a new and differnt surface.

My older kids painted stripes and fancy colour co-ordinated patterns, my six year old loved the way the paint swam down the ridges on the pasta and swirled the colours together, and my toddler just painted, and painted and painted.

Painting pasta to thread - easy art for everyone!

You need to be a little light on with the paint so the pasta doesn’t get too soggy, but even soggy pasta will harden again if you allow it dry in a warm spot.

Once you are done painting you’ll need to spread the pasta out and leave it to dry in a warm spot overnight. If you are un a hurry you can put it on a tray in a love oven that you have turned off to speed up the drying process.

Painting pasta to thread - this was so much fun and the cool fluro pasta made great necklaces!

Once the pasta is dry it is time to use it!

Painted pasta can be used as a sensory tub filler, for crafts, of for threading!

Threading with Painted Pasta

We used our fluro painted pasta for a simple threading activity.

To thread with tubular pasta you’ll need some string. We like using weed wacker plastic cording as it’s cheep and really stiff which makes it easy for little hands to manage, or you can use plastic craft string, or just use regular strong with a plastic craft needle attached to one end.

Tie a piece of pasta to the end of the string so nothing falls off while the child is threading and you are ready to make a magical painted pasta threading!

Painting pasta to thread - this was so much fun and the cool fluro pasta made great necklaces!

Now just put on your super trendy fluro pasta necklace and you’re ready for anything!

Painting pasta to thread - this was so much fun and the cool fluro pasta made great necklaces!

Sometimes it really is the simplest activities that turn out the best.

This was so much fun and the results were so cool! I am in love with all the colour combinations and may have snapped 20 gazillion photos of all that glorious colour and then proudly wore my necklace to school pick up!

Surely I am not the only one who has worn a kid-made accessory in public right??

If you loved this cool art activity, you might also like one of these ideas:

Absorption painting - a super easy process art activity for kids
Absorption Painting.
Squish Painting! An easy art activity that never gets old!
Squish Painting.
mesh dabber painting - a simple art activity.
Mesh Dabber Painting.

And if your kids love to thread things, check out this super list of easy threading ideas.

Awesome ideas for threading - lots of ideas for what to thread with and how to make it work for very little ones and older kids

Awesome ideas for Threading.

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Filed Under: Activities for kids Tagged With: activities for preschoolers, activities for school kids, activities for toddlers, art for kids, fine motor activities

Read the comments or scroll down to add your own:

  1. Lucy @ Bake Play Smile says

    What a brilliant idea! Can’t wait to use this in my classroom! What crafty little kids you have!!!

    Reply
  2. Stephanie @ Twodaloo says

    This is such a great idea! We are totally doing this. Thanks for the inspiration!

    Reply
  3. Ana says

    Love, love, love the color of these! I am the same way with pics, I take about a gazillion and then have to narrow it down to just a few….such a difficult task. The color of the necklaces is so “photogenic”!

    Reply
  4. [email protected] says

    Absolutely love this idea Kate…was just thinking I didn’t have any pasta dyed and the girls really wanted to do some threading….never thought of letting them paint it!! Going to be giving it a go today with some new paints from Micador!

    Reply
  5. Debs says

    Ok, this has made me want to get the tempera paints out! The fluro ones! haha. I can’t believe they turned out so well on pasta! Nice one!

    Reply
  6. Cassi says

    Such beautiful colors! I just posted about this on The Crafty Crow :)

    Reply
  7. Deebi27 says

    Love the colors, questions…will the paint rub off on clothing? Think to spray a sealer on the pasta before threading?

    And YES, I wear all sorts of child’s art in public!

    Reply
    • katepickle says

      We didn’t have any problem with colour coming off, but it probably would after a while so maybe a quick spray with hair spray would do the trick?

      Reply
  8. gardênia dantas says

    Essa ideia é otima! Já fiz com minha turminha na escola, mas primeiro tingi o macarrão com anilina comestivel, assim não corremos o risco das crianças colorarem na boca um produto toxico. Elas adoraram a atividade.

    Reply
  9. Carolyn says

    Ive done colored pasta before as a classroom teacher use a couple of teaspoons of rubbing alcohol and food coloring in a ziplock bag put in pasta and seal then shake just an easier method

    Reply
    • katepickle says

      Yes, colouring pasta with food colouring is a great way to get it done quickly, but for this activity the aim was to be creative and to enjoy the process of making fun and funkly coloured pasta to thread.

      Reply
  10. Dani says

    This is such a cool idea. Thank you for sharing.

    Reply
  11. Cynthia says

    What did you use to thread it? It doesn’t look like yarn.

    Reply
    • katepickle says

      We use plastic craft string to thread with as it’s a bit easier to use than floppy wool or string.

      Reply
  12. Clara Browder says

    I have questions do cook the pasta first or not I am going to this activity with preschoolers . ?

    Reply
    • katepickle says

      No, the pasta is not cooked… just hard dry pasta as it comes out of the packet.

      Reply

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