Pasta Costumes: Raincloud

October 19, 2017
Age, Early Elementary, Grown-Up, Halloween, Holidays, Preschool, Toddler

Turn a rainy day into a ray of sunshine!

This happy rainbow-raincloud costume is all about the head-gear—just add raincoat and boots. We thought about making pasta raindrops, but we got so excited when we saw how these rainbow penne strands transformed into lightening bolts when they were hung from the hat.

Scroll down below the photos for the how-to!


 

What you’ll need:

  • Box of penne pasta
  • Bag of pillow batting
  • Adhesive spray
  • Pirate, cowboy, or other big brimmed hat
  • Fishing line
  • Scissors
  • Hot glue
  • White straw
  • Masking Tape
  • Red, yellow, green, blue food dye
  • Five resealable sandwich bags
  • Hand sanitizer
  • Wax Paper

Outfit suggestions:

  • Yellow rain jacket
  • Jean leggings
  • Yellow rainboots

 

Make it:

  1. Add one teaspoon of hand sanitizer and six drops of red food dye to a resealable bag.
  2. Pour approximately 20 pieces of penne into bag, shake until all are covered and then lay out on wax paper to dry.
  3. Repeat with yellow, orange, green, and blue dye and pasta.
  4. Spray the top of the hat, including brim, with adhesive and add one layer of batting. Spray again and add second layer of batting. Continue until you achieve the cloud shape you want.
  5. Once pasta is dry, thread onto fishing line creating three strands for each color – four noodles, six noodles, and eight noodles – leaving at least three inches of extra line .
  6. Use tape to evenly mark fifteen spots on the underside of the hat brim where the pasta rain will hang, leaving space at the front for your child’s face.
  7. Cut fifteen pieces of white straw, approximately ½” each, and hot-glue them in place of the tape marks.
  8. Thread the fishing line strands through the straws in alternating colors to create a rainbow hanging from the cloud.

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Pasta Costumes: Robot

October 13, 2017
Halloween, Holidays

Robot costumes are among my favorite to make because the creative freedom is endless. Knobs, buttons, antennae, switches—you can go crazy with all of the fun pasta shapes out there to create a gorgeous control panel.

We decided to think outside the box (literally) and not put my son Oliver in a cardboard box. Instead, we created his control panel on an 11×14-inch canvas. If you don’t have one of those laying around, you can just cut a piece of cardboard and attach the ribbon around the neck like we did (scroll down to see how-to below).

What you’ll need:

For the control panel

  • Rotelle (wagon wheel), ziti, penne, rings, orecchiette, flat lasagna and dried ravioli pasta
  • 11”x14” canvas
  • Small cardboard jewelry box
  • Silver and blue paint
  • Red and yellow food dye
  • Three resealable bags
  • Hand sanitizer
  • Silver ribbon
  • Two flat thumb tacks
  • Wax paper

 

For the helmet

  • 1 quart sized metal Colander
  • Silver pipe cleaners
  • 1 ½-inch-diameter foam pipe insulation
  • Scissors
  • Felt
  • Adhesive velcro

 

Robot gear

  • silver/grey hoodie and pants
  • Grey felt

 

How to make control panel

  1. Paint canvas and jewelry box silver
  2. Paint the front and back of two pieces of lasagna blue then let dry
  3. Put one teaspoon of hand sanitizer in a plastic bag
  4. Add six drops of red and pour in a variety of pasta types. Shake bag until noodles are covered then lay out on wax paper to dry.
  5. Repeat with yellow dye and orange dye (four drops of yellow and two drops of red)
  6. Glue silver box and two blue lasagna pieces to canvas. Glue smaller pasta on top in grids, v’s and other patterns
  7. Tack one side of the ribbon to the back top corner of the canvas. Measure so that the canvas hangs in front of child’s chest and tack second end to other corner. Cut off excess

 

How to make helmet

  1. Fold a pipe cleaner in half and thread it through the middle of the top of the colander. Slip colored ziti onto the two sides and twist on wagon wheel pasta at the top. Hot glue colored wagon wheels on the front of the colander for more “buttons”
  2. Cut two 3-inch segments of pipe insulation. Use pipe cleaners to wire them to the inside bottom of the colander (top of the helmet).
  3. To create the helmet’s chin strap, cut a 1-by-14 inch piece of felt and adhere a tab of the rough Velcro to either end on the same side of the strap. Two inches down from the rough Velcro on either side of the strap, attach a 3-inch strip of soft Velcro (to allow the strap to be adjustable). Thread the strap through the colander’s handles.

 

How to make wristbands

  1. Cut 2 strips of grey felt, approximately 2 inches wide, to fit child’s wrists and add Velcro to the ends
  2. Hot glue matching pasta design in the middle of each wrist band

 

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Pasta Costumes: Hip-Hop Dancer

October 12, 2017
Age, Early Elementary, Grown-Up, Halloween, Holidays, Older Elementary, Tween to Teen

hip hop dancer halloween pasta costume diy craft kids

This pasta costume was born out my continued and everlasting love of the classic macaroni necklace that I pray my kids will make me sometime. (And I will be that mom at a cocktail party wearing it with pride. For realz.)

This hip-hop dancer slash rapper slash tough chick costume can be made out of what you can find in your closet (but if you love our look, the links for purchasing our ensemble are below).

And don’t even get me started on the boom box candy collector. If you live in Brooklyn, NY, you’ll be seeing me sporting this on Halloween ’17!

Scroll down for the how-to!


What you’ll need:

For the jewelry

  • Rigatoni, Rotelle (wagon wheels), Ditalini,
  • String/Elastic cording
  • Gold Spray paint
  • Scissors
  • Cardboard box

For the Boom Box

  • Shoe box
  • Two to-go cardboard soup cup lids
  • Silver, white, red and black paint
  • Red pipe cleaner
  • 12” long dowel
  • Exacto Blade
  • Hot Glue
  • Black Marker
  • Orecchiette, ziti, medium rigatoni, rings, lasagna, rotelle
  • Two resealable bags
  • Hand sanitizer
  • Red and yellow food dye
  • Small screwdriver or sharp object (a sharpened pencil will work)

Rapper Outfit

  • Leggings/joggers
  • Tank Top
  • Furry Vest
  • Beanie
  • High Top Sneakers

 

How to make the jewelry

  1. String patterns of pasta to make chains. Play with different lengths and combinations. Create bracelets out of shorter chains.
  2. To make a medallion, glue wagon wheels together in circular shape and add ditalini accents.
  3. Once you are finished, put pasta jewelry in a cardboard box and spray paint gold. Once it’s dry, flip it and spray the other side.

 

How to make the boom box

  1. Paint shoe box, lid, and 2 pieces of rotelle pasta silver, and soup-cup tops black. Paint dowel red and let dry.
  2. Cut off the end of a piece of flat lasagna to create a rectangle approximately the size of a deck of cards. Paint both sides white and let dry.
  3. Put one teaspoon of hand sanitizer in a plastic bag and add six drops of red. Add orecchiette, ziti, and rings. Shake bag until noodles are covered then lay out on wax paper to dry.
  4. Repeat with yellow dye and ring and rigatoni pasta.
  5. Cut a rectangular hole in the center of one long side of the box (top of the boom box) for candy.
  6. Hot glue top of box onto base and soup lids onto the front corners of boom box. Glue one silver wagon wheel into the center of each lid to make speakers.
  7. Glue the lasagna rectangle in between lids and paint on two circles and a rectangle in black.
  8. Glue on pasta to form buttons and knobs. (We used 4 red ziti pieces, 4 red orecchiette pieces, 6 red rings, 4 yellow rings, and four medium rigatoni pieces.)
  9. Cut pipe cleaner in half and fold each half in half then feed each half through a piece of red ziti.
  10. Slide the loops over the ends of the dowel, tighten by pulling ziti up and add drop of hot glue to secure.
  11. Poke a hole at each end of the box, next to the rectangular opening, and push pipe cleaner ends in.
  12. Open ends of pipe cleaner inside of box to secure. Use hot-glue where needed to add strength.

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Pasta Costumes: Butterfly Fairy

October 11, 2017
Animals, Early Elementary, Grown-Up, Halloween, Holidays, Older Elementary, Preschool, Toddler

fairy butterfly diy costume easy last minute girls pasta

Not sure if this happens to everyone, but when I look at pasta shapes in the grocery store aisle, all I can think of is what I can make with them. Not make as in cook (I mean who do you think I am?), but make as in craft! And when I look at farfalle, it’s obvious…they are butterflies begging for some antennae!

We decked out my daughter Sommer from head to toe in swarms of butterflies, but this costume will fly (pun intended) even if you use the store-bought wand that comes with the wings, or if you decide not to add to the shoes.

Scroll down for the DIY!

butterfly fairy diy halloween costume girls easy last minute pasta

butterfly fairy costume pasta easy last minute

Butterfly Fairy

What you’ll need:

  • Farfalle, elbow, and orecchiette pasta
  • Thin wire
  • Wire cutters
  • Blue, pink, red, and yellow food dye
  • Three resealable sandwich bags
  • Hand sanitizer
  • 1 1/2-inch wide ribbon
  • Headband
  • Dowel
  • Blue paint
  • Matching blue washi tape
  • Hot-glue gun
  • Scissors
  • Iridescent glitter paint
  • Paintbrush

 

Fairy outfit suggestions

 

How to dye the pasta:

  1. Add one teaspoon of hand sanitizer to bag and six drops of pink dye.
  2. Pour in approximately 15 pieces of farfalle, 30 pieces of elbow pasta, and 10 pieces of orecchiette. Shake bag until all pieces are covered, and then lay on wax paper to dry.
  3. Repeat with orange dye and blue dye, using 6 drops per bag.

pasta butterfly how to craft diy

How to make the butterflies:

  1. Cut a piece of wire about 9 to 15 inches long and fold in half. Place the points of the wire behind pasta.
  2. With about 1/2-inch above the center of the farfalle, wrap wire around the center of the noodle on either side of the antennae.
  3. Twist the long wire loop to create butterfly “stem”.
  4. Paint glitter on the front of butterfly and let dry. Repeat steps to turn all pasta into butterflies.

Headband: Twist butterfly stems around headband and secure with a dot of hot-glue.

Wand: Paint dowel blue and let it dry. Attach butterfly stems to dowel by wrapping with matching tape. Repeat all around dowel top to create a butterfly swarm.

Shoes: Thread butterfly stems through lace holes and twist to secure.

Wings: Arrange pasta around edges of wings to create pattern and secure with hot glue.

Belt: Hot-glue pasta pieces to a piece of ribbon that can tie comfortably around child’s waist.

Dress: Arrange elbow pasta around collar to give a scalloped look and hot-glue to secure.

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Pasta Costumes: Hedgehog

October 10, 2017
Animals, Baby, Early Elementary, Grown-Up, Halloween, Holidays, Older Elementary, Preschool, Toddler, Tween to Teen

dress up like a hedgehog for halloween costume

At Project Kid we like to start thinking about Halloween costumes way ahead of time, but that doesn’t mean we like costumes that take a lot of time to make. In fact, we prefer the kind you can craft last minute with materials you probably already have on hand. We love costumes that are doable, not daunting, and that let kids be comfortable so they can enjoy celebrating!

We started scheming and thought of a super-versatile costume supply that shouldn’t be underestimated…PASTA!  It’s in every kitchen, it’s easy to color, and it comes in all shapes and sizes. Start with a basic base, add pasta and the pasta-bilities are endless.  This is the first in a series of five pasta costume ideas that we hope you’ll enjoy making as much as we did.

hedgehog halloween costume diy kids craft

HAPPY HEDGEHOG

For a young nature lover who wants to stay cozy while trick-or-treating, creating a hedgehog suit with ziti couldn’t be simpler.

hedgehog halloween costume kid pasta kids hedgehog halloween costume made from pasta

What you’ll need:

 

Make it!

  1. Put one teaspoon of hand sanitizer into plastic bag. Add ten drops of yellow, three drops of red, and one drop of blue. Squish the bag around until the dye has turned one color. If it is too green, add more red.
  2. Pour in pasta, close top, and shake bag until dye has been evenly distributed.
  3. Set out wax paper and place pasta on it to dry.
  4. Once dry, use hot glue to add pasta to the back of hoodie in staggered lines.
  5. Continue adding pasta to the back of the hood stopping about 4 inches from the front edge of hood.
  6. Cut out two rounded edge triangles for ears, and two smaller triangles for ear centers and glue together.
  7. Hot-glue ears to the pasta at the top of hood.

 

halloween hedgehog costume

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