Colorful pasta noodles are great to use for crafts, sensory bins, and sorting activities. This simple tutorial will show you how to dye pasta in batches in a rainbow of colors!

It has been years since I have made colorful noodles to use for crafts. When I was a camp counselor, I usually made a batch or two for the kids to use throughout the summer. We’d make noodle necklaces or glue them to paper to create colorful pasta collages. It was always great to have some on hand for rainy day projects.

Now that the little guy is getting older and enjoys doing more craft projects, I decided it was time to whip up a batch of dyed pasta noodles to have on hand. Since we always seem to have half full boxes of pasta in our pantry, I dug around until I found a few different types of noodles to use. Then I grabbed some supplies and got to work!

how to dye pasta noodles

Supplies
rubbing alcohol
dry pasta noodles
ziplock bags
food dye
paper towels or cardboard

Now the way I do this, there is really no exact science…I honestly guesstimate everything! And it hasn’t failed me yet. Except for maybe the purple this time around – it’s not the prettiest shade of purple. 

To get started, I poured a few different types of pasta into gallon sized ziplock bags.  I then poured a splash of rubbing alcohol into the bag and about 10-12 drops of food dye. After sealing the bag, I squished everything all around until it looked like most of the noodles were covered with color.

Then I let the noodles sit in the bag for about 10 minutes, giving it a few squishes and shakes every couple of minutes to really spread the dye around.

I lined a baking pan with cardboard and paper towels, then dumped the pasta into the pan to let it dry for a few hours. I wasn’t too concerned about the colors overlapping, but you could also spread out each color separately if you don’t want a few multi-colored pastas.

After it was dry, I poured it all into a gallon ziplock to store for future projects and activities. You could also put each color into a smaller ziplock bag or container.

A very easy how-to project for dying pasta! Now we need to start making some fun projects to use up all of these colorful noodles!

What’s your favorite craft project to make with pasta? Any fun activity ideas?