12 Days of Conscientious Christmas, Day 5

Adorable Pasta Wreath, created by Heather and Kidz

I just love this wreath, and it's a great craft idea to do with kidz.  It's also an economical and fun twist on a holiday tradition--natural wreaths at my nearby grocery store were going for $30!  

If you're sensitive to artificial food coloring, you can use natural alternatives.  I didn't like the flavor of the India Tree food colors, but since this craft isn't for eating they might be the perfect option! Thank you, Heather, for sharing!

Pasta Wreath Directions

Materials:
Pasta of choice (amount will vary depending upon the size wreath you make) I used two bags of egg noodles
green food coloring
large ziploc bags (one for each kid involved works well)
Paper towels
Large carboard
pencil
scissors or utility knife
2-3 Bottles of white glue (one for each kid involved works well)
Ribbon
Wire/String


Coloring Pasta:
• Pour pasta into large ziploc bags. Do no stuff the ziplocs. The pasta needs to be able to slide around.
• Add drops of food coloring to the bags, 5-10 drops to start. Again, it will all depend upon pasta variety used and quantity that you are coloring. I add 5-10 drops, close bag and shake, slide, jiggle, whatever for a few minutes to get an idea of the coverage. Add more if desired. Some recipes call for adding alcohol or vinegar. I've never used either.
• Spread out 2-3 layers of paper towels on counter.
• After achieving desired coloring and coverage of the food coloring on the pasta, pour and spread out the wet colored pasta onto the paper towels to dry. I let mine dry overnight.

Base:
• Decide what size you want your wreath to be. I traced around a large platter in order to draw the large circle. I then traced a smaller plate for the middle. Because I was trying to bulk up the wreath, I cut three of those circles of cardboard and then trimmed them each down to be a little smaller than the next. All three layers were glued together with white glue.

Glueing on the Pasta:
• First divided the fully dried colored pasta into two large bowls (one for each child).
• Next, I drizzled white glue to coat the cardboard base. Leaving very little cardboard showing through.
• Place colored pasta on glue cardboard base anywhere and everywhere. Initially the kids were tentative placing only one piece at a time, but they soon learned that would have taken them days and we simply had way too much pasta. They then started taking small handfuls of the colored pasta and placing them onto the base.
• I then went and balanced the pasta heaping mounds out around the entire wreath. It would have been a tad lopsided otherwise.
• All three of us took a glue bottle and started drizzling large heavy amounts of glue all over the wreath. I think we may have used 2.5-3 full bottles by the end of all of it. We were overly generous, but they were having a grand time!
• Let dry overnight.

Ribbon:
• I bought a roll of ribbon from Target that has the wire inside it, so it was each to shape. After forming the bow, I hot glued it in place.

Wire/String:
• With the smaller wreath I made (that broke in our move!) I was able to use a small loop decorative silver ribbon similar to the kind you would wrap a gift with.
• We now have a glass panels on our front door, so there is no way I'm hammering a nail in the front and needed to use a over the door wreath hanger. The wreath hanger I purchased did not accommodate the bulk of the wreath very well, so I needed to create a way to attach the wreath to the hanger. First off, the wreath's size made it too heavy for the decorative ribbon to hang with, so I went with a spool of thin wire. I looped it through the center hole and twisted the ends together. Had I considered this issue prior to assembling all the pasta, I might have tried to leave a smaller hole or attach something to the back of the cardboard that would have hidden the hanging aspect of the wreath much more discreetly.

Afterthoughts:
• My kids absolutely loved this project and each wants to make one for their bedroom doors. We'll see!
• I've wondered about adding more "red" to the wreath. I chose a silver bow, but could have used red. My daughter suggested red balls on the wreath like berries. I have mixed feelings about it. I like being able to see the pasta. Boring, maybe. Maybe next year!