How to dye Pasta Noodles with Paint for Sensory Play

This method on how to dye pasta that I am about to talk about is by far the easiest way to color dry pasta for crafts. 

It is by far my favorite way and it does not stain your hands (just in case you were to get a little bit with food coloring). 

Both methods (food coloring and paint) are really great methods but this method I am about to elaborate on below is, in my opinion, the easiest, quickest and my favorite way to dye dry beans/rice/pasta! 

So, let’s get into How to dye pasta for sensory play, shall we? 

Note: If you’d like to see the quickest and easiest way to color sensory rice, check out this post right here! 🙂

Supplies: 

This post contains affiliate links. 

• Dried Pasta

• Acrylic Paint or Tempera Paint

• A dash of hand sanitizer 

• Ziploc Bag

• Parchment Pape

What is rainbow pasta? 

Rainbow pasta is just as its name says: rainbow pasta. 

Making rainbow pasta is as easy as apple pie. 

The two methods I have tried are coloring our pasta with food coloring and coloring our pasta with paint. 

These are the two methods I know to color our pasta and in turn make it – rainbow pasta. 🙂 

Can you dye spaghetti with paint? 

You can totally dye uncooked spaghetti using paint. It is by far my most favorite method and I am sharing how I color our pasta below. 

How to color pasta noodles for crafts video below 🙂 

How to dye pasta with hand sanitizer?

• Add about 1 ½ to cups of dried pasta into a bag.

• Then, add about 1 teaspoon of acrylic paint.

• Then, this is optional but I like to think it’s gets the flow going. Add in a squirt or 2 of hand sanitizer into the zip loc bag. 

• Zip up the bag, shake it, leave the pasta out to dry and voila! 

• You’ve colored dry pasta using hand sanitizer. 

How do you dye dry pasta? 

Coloring dry pasta is easy! 🙂 

I will show you the steps we take with the measurements we use on how to dye spaghetti with paint:

• Open your ziploc bag. 

• Insert around 1 ½ cups of dried pasta

• Then add around 1 tsp of acrylic paint

• Squirt in 1 to 2 drops of hand sanitizer (optional)

• Zip up your zip lock bag leaving no air within the bag. 

• Shake your bag around and watch the paint consume the dried pasta with color.

• Once all of the pasta is totally colors, open your zip lock bag. 

• Add your colored pasta to a parchment paper to dry. 

• Once completely dry, your pasta is ready for play to learn activities and crafts for kids!

How to make red pasta 

How to make green spaghetti?

How to make colored macaroni crafts? 

All the colors can be made by following the steps mentioned above. 

It is as simple as adding the colored paint you desire, dried pasta, and a dash of hand sanitizer (optional) into a bag, shaking it and leaving it out to dry. 

Dye dry pasta in minutes! 

You’ve got this! 🙂 

Pasta activities for toddlers

Ohh! How exciting.

There are so many fun activities you can try using colored pasta for toddlers. 

Here are some ideas you can try for fun colored pasta crafts: 

• Pasta bracelet

• Gold Pasta Necklace

• Macaroni Necklace

• Macaroni jewelry box

• Dry pasta paint color noodles for counting

• Dry pasta paint color noodles for adding and subtracting

• Colored noodles for crafts using glue and construction paper

• Colored Noodles within a sensory bin

• Fine motor play activity like we did

And so much more.. What other fun ideas can you think of trying out with colored pasta for kids? 

How to dye rice using paint? 

If you’d like to learn how to dye rice the easy way, definitely check out this post right here. 

You will be surprised at how easy it is to color rice! 🙂 

Leave me a comment below and tell me your thoughts about coloring dry pasta/beans/rice. 🙂