It’s hard for me to believe that after all these years of crafting, I have never made a macaroni necklace before.  I guess it took motherhood to kick into full gear for pasta art to fully seep into my life.  Regardless, I’m so glad it did because macaroni necklaces totally rock.  I haven’t taken these off all week! My 4 year old and I take turns with them each morning.  She says I’ll know she’s my daughter because we’re wearing matching necklaces.

We made these as part of #theacaronichallenge with the Rockin Art Moms.  Have you entered yet?  There is so much amazing creativity on the hashtag.  You have to check it out.  I’m so impressed with all these clever ideas!

Our macaroni necklaces are pretty basic.  You can do these with really young children.  My girls are 2 and half and almost 4 and they loved it.  Keep reading for all the details.

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Materials

tube pasta

oil pastels

wood beads (I love wood beads for all kinds of crafting. I can’t find the multipack on amazon right now but I know it’s out there somewhere.)

liquid watercolors

pipettes, spritzers or spray bottles (I find the ikea ones are the easiest and lightest for kids)

some kind of string (we used lanyard and suede cord)

The first thing we did was color different pieces of pasta and wood beads with oil pastels.  We made different scribbles and lines all over them and set them down on a paper towel.  Then we used liquid droppers to drop liquid watercolors on them.  The paint kind of adheres to the pasta, but doesn’t go on heavily.

So we tried using little spritzers over the beaded necklace and that worked a lot better.  The only bummer is that I haven’t found spritzers yet that are really easy for little hands, so my girls had to point where they wanted each color to go.  I’d say these spritzers are good for kids 6 and up or so.  They take some hand strength.  You can also use spray bottles.  I think that would be a lot easier for little hands.

I love the beautiful print the necklace left under all the watercolors.  It’s so pretty isn’t it?Regardless of how we painted the necklaces, my girls didn’t really care.  Even the ones that stayed pasta color looked great.

I love the way they look all layered.

If you want to do that fancy one that looks a little like pasta tassels hanging down, start with a long cord about arms width and put the ends together.  Slide a pasta tube down to the center, followed by a wood bead.  Take the string piece next to the bead and string the lanyard back through the pasta tube going around the bead.  You’re going to repeat this three times.  If you did it right, the string will be hugging the beads and two pieces of string will be strung through each piece of pasta.  Hope that makes sense! If not, feel free to email me.  I learned this technique at Crafting Community, an incredible event in Palm Desert, California that I highly recommend going to with your family.  It’s a very special family experience/mega craftathon.

These seriously make the best Mother’s Day gift or really any feel good gift.  We are going to make a bunch and hand them out to all the regulars and baristas at our favorite local coffee shop. I can’t wait.

If you haven’t entered #themacaronichallenge yet, what are you waiting for?!  We’ve extended the deadline through Mother’s Day.  One lucky winner will receive an awesome package of Rockin Art Mom books!  These are amazing crafting books.  You’ll love them.  Most of all, you’ll love tinkering around with pasta.  It’s strangely addicting.  I now dream in pasta.  Check out the pasta sculptures we made last week to kick of the challenge.  You can get all the details for #themacaronichallenge by clicking the link.

Also, wood beads and pasta just kind of work together.  They look so 70’s  and yet so modern at the same time.  My latest fave combo.

So, stop reading right now and go get some pasta from the cabinet.  You got this.  Can’t wait to see what you make.  Thanks for reading along everyone and Happy Mother’s Day! xo Meri