Category: Sensory Play

I don’t always have the budget to buy fancy sensory mixes, but I love the look of them and my daughter loves the variety of shapes, colours and textures in the more complicated mixes. She likes to make patterns and art with them. I have been learning to make sensory mixes myself and I am sharing what I’ve learned so far.

There are 2 ways I know of to colour pasta, rice, lentils and other dried goods: dying and painting.

Dying Pasta (also works for rice and other dry goods)

Dying pasta is an easy was to colour pasta or other dry goods. I choose dying as my method is the pasta is fine or fragile and I’m concerned about it sticking together.

Materials

• food dye (gel or liquid)
• vinegar
• pasta (or other dry good)
• bowl with a secure lid
• parchment paper
• baking sheet

Step 1: Add dye to bowl

Add a glob of dye to the bowl. The more dye used, the more saturated the colour will be.

Step 2: Add a splash of vinegar

The measurement doesn’t need to be exact, but add about a tbsp or two of vinegar. Mix the vinegar and dye together.

Step 3: Add pasta

Add around 2- 3 cups of pasta to the bowl. Do not overfill the bowl with pasta as it will be more difficult to mix with the dye.

Step 4: Shake

Secure the lid on the bowl and shake until the dye covers the pasta. If the dye looks uneven, add another tbsp of vinegar.

Step 5: Dry pasta on parchment paper

Empty the bowl onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Spread the pasta out on the paper. Dry overnight.

Painting Pasta (or other dry good)

Painting pasta is the other method for colouring dry goods. There are many, many paint colours available and I tend to choose this method if I’m hoping for a specific colour, or a colour that is not easily achieved with food dye. I find the drawback to this method to be that the paint can make the pasta, rice, etc. can stick together and sometimes break when trying to separate it. I am still searching for the trick to avoid this.

Materials

• acrylic paint (I used paint from Michaels or Dollarama)
• pasta, rice or other dry good
• ziplock bag (or bowl with a lid)
• parchment paper
• baking pan

Step 1: Place pasta in ziplock bag

Place 2-3 cups of pasta in a ziplock bag.

Step 2: Add paint

Add a squirt of paint. The more paint, the more saturated the colour, but also the higher the risk of the pasta sticking together. I like to add a little paint at a time to make sure I don’t add too much.

Step 3: Shake

Seal the bag and shake, shake, shake until the paint is evenly spread around. Check the colour and add more paint as required.

Step 4: Dry

Once the desired colour and coverage is achieved, empty the bag onto a baking pan lined with parchment, spread out as much as possible and leave to dry overnight.

So that’s all it takes to colour pasta and other dry goods. Once everything is dry, you can mix it together and add any other embellishments or extras that you wish.

I like to minimize my waste in the process, so I wash the bowl and ziplock bags for future use. Both the food dye and the paint come off easily if washed soon after colouring. I keep the washed and dried ziplocks with my sensory mixes ingredients so i can remember to use them next time.