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You are here: Home / By Age / For Parents / How to Dye Pasta

May 22, 2014 By Chelsey 18 Comments

How to Dye Pasta

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Colored pasta is one of our favorite craft and learning materials. We often dye it in batches and save it for all kinds of future kid art projects and activities.  Here’s how to dye pasta!

Follow our Recipes for Play and Creating Pinterest board!

 

Learn how to dye pasta! (Colored pasta is the perfect material for all kinds of crafts and learning activities!)~ Buggy and Buddy

 

As a classroom teacher, one of the first things I learned to do was dye pasta! It can be used for all kinds of learning activities and crafts, and the actual process of coloring the pasta is always a fun activity for kids.

Dyeing your own pasta is super simple and only requires a couple of ingredients. (This post contains affiliate links.)

 

How to Dye Pasta

Materials Needed for Dyeing Pasta

  • Dried pasta
  • Rubbing alcohol
  • Food coloring
  • Gallon size plastic baggies
  • Newspaper
  • Tray or cookie sheet

Directions for Dyeing Pasta

1. Start by placing your dried pasta into a large baggie.

Place pasta in baggie

 

2. Add some rubbing alcohol and food coloring to the bag of pasta. (The amount depends on how much pasta your are dyeing, but you really can’t go wrong. For one whole package of rigatoni, I used about 1/4 cup alcohol and 4-5 big squirts of food coloring.)

Add rubbing alcohol and food coloring

 

3. Mush the bag around so all the pasta gets covered with the rubbing alcohol and food coloring. (I did this all outside since I had a few bags that leaked a bit.) At this point you can add more food coloring if you want your color a bit deeper or add more rubbing alcohol if the color doesn’t seem to be covering all the pasta.

Mix the contents of the bag to dye the pasta

 

4. Let the bags sit for about 10-15 minutes. Be sure to move them around a few times to get even coverage.

Let the colored pasta sit

 

5. Spread some newspaper out. (We put our newspaper in a tray because it was super windy out.) Dump the pasta out of the baggie and onto the newspaper. Spread it out as best you can and wait for it to dry.

Let your dyed pasta dry on some newspaper

6. Once the pasta is completely dry, store it in some fresh baggies or containers.

What Can You Do with Colored Pasta?

Wondering what to do with all that colored pasta you just made? Here’s some ideas to get you started!

  • Thread it onto some yarn to make a necklace like our caterpillar necklace craft.
  • Make a colorful rainbow craft.
  • Set up a simple fine motor activity with pasta and playdough.
  • Use the colored pasta in a sensory bin.
  • Substitute colored pasta for the pompoms in this toddler invitation to play.

 

How to Dye Pasta (Perfect material for all kinds of hands-on learning activities and crafts for kids!)~ Buggy and Buddy

how to dye pasta and what to do with it

 

Filed Under: For Parents, For Teachers, Recipes for Playing & Creating Tagged With: pasta

« Fine Motor and Math Game for The Mixed Up Chameleon by Eric Carle
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Comments

  1. Angela @ Teaching Mama says

    May 22, 2014 at 1:15 pm

    Great explanation of coloring pasta. And thanks for sharing our rainbow pasta craft!

    Reply
  2. Karen says

    May 27, 2014 at 8:34 am

    Looks great! Thank you! For planning purposes, how long does it take the pasta to dry?

    Reply
    • Chelsey says

      May 27, 2014 at 10:19 am

      Hi Karen~ In the sun it only takes about 15 minutes. Inside it takes about 45 minutes. 🙂

      Reply
  3. Natasha says

    June 1, 2014 at 4:35 pm

    you’r pasta the colors look so vibrant. I have colored pasta before and they came out kind of dull but I like the idea of letting them sit in the baggie for a while. I will try that next time and maybe my color will come out pretty like yours. #thoughtfulspotweeklybloghop

    Reply
  4. Lydia Larae says

    June 8, 2014 at 10:30 am

    This is a lot simpler than I always thought it was. This is a great tutorial, thanks I will definitely be using this!

    Reply
  5. Linda says

    August 31, 2014 at 8:18 pm

    My first year teaching, I dyed pasta this way…..but….I did not let it dry LONG enough. I Let the kids string the pasta and wear their necklaces home…Some of the children had shirts that were dyed from the food coloring! Oh boy, I learned my lesson on that one!

    Reply
  6. candy says

    March 20, 2015 at 6:07 pm

    Did u cook the pasta dry it then dye it and could i use vinger instead of alcohol?

    Reply
    • Chelsey says

      March 21, 2015 at 2:55 pm

      The pasta is never cooked, just use it dry right out of the box! You can also use vinegar- it will take longer to dry and sometimes keeps a vinegary scent after it’s dry.

      Reply
  7. Kenzie Lynn says

    June 18, 2018 at 7:04 pm

    This is great! The process is so easy! Thank you for sharing! I do have 1 question though. Would the noodles be safe to eat? I’ve coloured 4 different types of noodles and plan on cooking them for some sensory play with my son. However, he is still at the age of putting EVERYRHING in his mouth. I’m just wondering if with the rubbing alcohol if it is safe for him or if I should wait until he is older?

    Reply
  8. Hayley says

    June 28, 2018 at 12:22 pm

    My pasta has come out really dull, what can I do?

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Fine Motor Octopus Craft for Kids - Buggy and Buddy says:
    May 28, 2014 at 10:11 pm

    […] dyed our pasta before using it for this […]

    Reply
  2. Fine Motor Sun Craft for Kids - Buggy and Buddy says:
    June 9, 2014 at 9:28 am

    […] If you don’t have any straws, use some tube-shaped pasta instead! Here’s how we dyed our own pasta and used it in a similar craft- Fine Motor […]

    Reply
  3. Ocean Slime Recipe - Buggy and Buddy says:
    June 17, 2014 at 4:44 pm

    […] How to Dye Pasta […]

    Reply
  4. How to Make Butter - Buggy and Buddy says:
    October 25, 2014 at 10:49 pm

    […] How to Dye Pasta […]

    Reply
  5. Homeschooling With A Toddler - CreativLEI says:
    October 30, 2014 at 5:58 pm

    […] favorites are the mixed beans, the pasta, and the rice. The dyed beans are not color fast. At. […]

    Reply
  6. Crafts for Kids: Caterpillar Necklace Craft says:
    February 13, 2015 at 1:16 pm

    […] Dyed pasta (Here’s my favorite way to dye pasta!) […]

    Reply
  7. Pasta Mosaic Art Project for Kids (#TheMacaroniChallenge & Giveaway!) - Buggy and Buddy says:
    April 27, 2015 at 5:00 am

    […] part of the macaroni challenge hosted by the RAMs, we decided to use dyed pasta in our mosaics. We dyed our pasta the day before so it was all colored and ready to […]

    Reply
  8. 4th of July Books and Activities - Sicily's Heart & Home says:
    February 24, 2017 at 10:52 am

    […] red and blue. For white, I just used the normal colored pasta. I follow these directions from Buggy and Buddy to dye my noodles. Once it’s all finished, you can dump them in a bin and start playing. […]

    Reply

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Welcome to Buggy and Buddy! I'm Chelsey, a former teacher and parent living on the central coast of California. I love sharing crafts, science, STEM and STEAM activities, free printables and more! Read More…

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