We’re re-thinking the macaroni Necklace this Mothers Day and coming up with few modern versions! Miss M and I had a lot of fun playing with pasta and we love our necklaces. In fact I love my necklace so much that I wish it was more durable than manicotti pasta noodles! I have a few other necklace ideas for our fun painted pasta and hope to drop a few more of those for you throughout the week so keep watch for those.

Jon helped me put together this sweet little video with Miss M. I love how it shows her working through stringing the noodles, scooping and sorting through the pasta noodles and making decisions. All important developmental milestones for a 2 and half year old. But you don’t have to be 2 1/2 to get into this! All my kids are totally on board – and I’ll admit that I’m a bit obsessed too!

There are so many ways to color pasta – such as dying it naturally (which I want to try next!). We painted ours using various types of paint. For the dark teal blue ones we spray painted a group of  various noodles together. My boys thought this looked like the coolest thing ever. I agree that it was really was fun to see the transformation. We also hand painted some of them which all the kids really got into (especially the younger two).I chose to stick with just three colors. I’m a big fan of limiting a kids color palette. I think it helps them when making artistic decisions and plants little design seeds into their creative minds by not overwhelming them with too much information (although a rainbow of colors can be equally beautiful if done right so definitely play around with that at times too). Before stringing the pasta noodles you can have your little one work on coordination exercises – such as having your toddler scoop from one bowl to the next. Encourage preschoolers to sort out colors, make groupings, do counting activities and more. The sound and texture of the pasta is really a fun sensory experience.

After playing around I gave miss M a bit of ribbon to string on the pasta noodles. We taped off one end of a ribbon to make a point so that it was extra easy for little hands to work with.

Miss M made the sweetest necklace and we even made a few pasta bow hair ties for her little piggies. (on Miss M: Bonton Favori Flouced top and Olive Juice Kids Cotton Spring skirt in Kiwi. on Me: Baggy Muslin Abaya Linen dress)

I had been eyeing the manicotti noodles for a “mommy necklace” and she helped me put it together. Was so fun. I really think she loved seeing me with one too! A sweet little Mommy and Me moment for us.

And if you don’t have any little ones around, don’t worry, you can still totally get into this. I’d totally sport a pasta necklace at a get together with friends right?This year at Alt Summit 2015 I met a great group of ladies that are equally passionate about encouraging kids to create – The Rockin’ Art Moms! It was so cool to chat with them about life creating with kids. I brought up process art and the macaroni necklace and we realized that none of us had ever made the quintenssional macaroni necklace kids craft (as adults on our blogs – I think most of us made something like it as kids). So I suggested we all do a macaroni necklace DIY (or really anything out of Pasta!) and encourage our readers to join in on the fun! Thus the #themacaronichallenge was born!

Check out these other creative pasta craft ideas and join is in noodling around!

Macaroni Frames // Pink Stripey Socks

Art Assemblage with Kids // Art Bar

Painted Macaroni Necklaces // MollyMoo

Modern Pasta Necklaces // Mer Mag

Pretty Pasta Pendants // Pysselbolaget

Pasta Sculptures with Preschoolers // Meri Cherry

Macaroni Pom-Pom Flower Necklace //  Willowday

Pasta Art Activities for Kids // The Artful Parent

A Modern Macaroni Masterpiece // Handmakery

Stained Glass Pasta // Babble Dabble Do

Pasta Drawing Prompts // Picklebums

Painted Pasta Art // Learn Play Imagine

Mosaic Art Project for Kids // from Buggy and Buddy

Macaroni Mosaics // Tiny Rotten Peanuts

Spaghetti Tower Marshmallow Challenge // Tinkerlab

Here’s how it works: Create your own unique pasta project (or do one of our projects) and post a picture in one or both of these two places:

1. The Rockin Art for Kids Facebook Page

2.  Instagram using the hashtag #TheMacaroniChallenge 

Challenge ends on May 10th, 2015. During this week the Rockin’ Art Moms will be sharing some of our favorite projects on our Facebook Pages.

BONUS: Everyone who joins us in the challenge will be entered in an amazing Rockin’ Art Moms Gift Basket giveaway. The winner will be selected at random from the entries and announced on Instagram and the Rockin’ Art for Kids Facebook page on Sunday May 10th, 2015.

Dreamy Prize basket giveaway will include books from the Rockin’ Art Moms:

Playful (from Me!)  // The Artful Parent and The Artful Year from The Artful Parent // Tinkerlab from Tinkerlab //150 Screen Free Activities for Kid from Fun at Home with Kid // Happy Handmade (ebook) from MollyMoo