Craft Ideas For Kids - Kids and Pasta By Audrey Okaneko Platinum Quality Author

Pasta is not just for tomato sauce. My kids loved pasta for many different art projects. Next time you find a sale on pasta grab several varieties. Here are just a few ideas of what kids can make with pasta.

Photo frames - We use either the bow pasta or the shell pasta. Start with thick cardboard. I tend to use white so that we can add any color we want. Your frame can either be circular or square. Cut out the frame, this is the actual full size you’ll want at the end. Then cut out the middle to fit the size of the photo you want to put in there.

Now decide if you want to spray paint the pasta or use food coloring. Gold metallic spray paint looks great. We have also made various colors of pasta and made rainbow frames.

If you want to turn your frame into a magnet, add some magnetic tape to the back.

Necklaces and Bracelets – Penne pasta and macaroni noodles make wonderful necklaces and bracelets. I suggest fishing line. It just doesn’t break. As with the frames, you can use multiple colors of pasta by adding food dye or you can spray paint the pasta, allow to dry and then string the pasta onto your fishing line.

Decorative Jars - Save empty jars. Then fill the far with an assortment of shapes and colors of pasta. These jars make pretty decorations for bathrooms, bedrooms or even end tables.

Pipe Cleaner Figurines - Grab a pipe cleaner. Now arrange pasta on the pipe cleaner to create people and animals. Mix and match shapes and sizes and then bend to create almost anything.

Self Portraits - Use spaghetti and linguini. Boil just until soft. Then press the pasta onto construction paper into a self portrait. You can also create landscape scenes using the soft long noodles.

These are just a few ideas of how to use pasta to create great art projects made by kids.

Audrey Okaneko is mom to two girls. She can be reached at audreyoka@cox.net or visited at http://www.scrapping-made-simple.com

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Green Crafts - Recycle Greeting Cards to Make Wonderfully Unique Gift Bags By Linda M Johnson

Have you ever thought of taking two items from Christmas that ordinarily are thrown out after the holidays are over to create a unique and eye catching embellishment gift wrap? By simply recycling both a greeting card and gift bag to make a useable and interesting one of a kind embellished gift bag, you will be doing your part towards recycling and have a custom design of your own.

First, use scissors to cut out and remove the front section of a greeting card. Next, attach a small piece of double-sided foam stick tape to the back of your cut out. Then, select a solid-colored recycled gift bag so that your embellishment will stand out against the solid color and become a focal point. Next, simply attach your embellishment to the center of the gift bag and hold until foam sticker bonds to the bag. Depending on the type and size of greeting card cut out you select, an option would be to punch out a hole through the embellishment. This would allow you to thread a ribbon (¾ inch width or less) through the opening. You can also personalize your embellishment using a fine point sharpie pen to address a name on it if your embellishment allows enough space to do so (see below for photos).

Supplies:

• Recycled greeting card
• Recycled solid colored gift bag
• Scissors
• Double-sided foam sticker tape
• Sharpie pen
• Ribbon (3/4 inch or smaller) Optional

(For another great idea, check out our recycled greeting card gift tag project.)

Linda Johnson is a degreed and experienced crafter and interior/exterior decorating specialist, with years of experience helping friends, family, and clients solve their decorating and craft needs. Find tons more craft and decorating ideas and photos of this project and others, and submit your own great ideas for free by visiting http://www.showcasetoideas.com/

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