October 4: "Bones" Jewelry

 Noodle jewelry with Halloween-y flair

Most days we celebrate October through food-based treats. However, sometimes we cycle in some crafts.

Today's craft is a play on everyone's favorite childhood classic, the noodle necklace. I suggested to my girls that we paint the noodles white to look like bones. However, all-white jewelry did not appeal to their sensibilities. In the end, I painted mine white, my older daughter did some white and some colored, and my younger went with a full array of assorted fall colors--many of them on each noodle. I actually like hers the best. (This frequently happens when I do paint-based crafts with them.)

 Organized materials: plates of ziti (no ridges like rigatoni) and wheels; paint; brushes

We started by organizing our materials. After lining the table with a Dollar Store plastic table cloth (I use those things for everything. When the girls want to do Play-Doh I put one on the floor so when they invariably make a mess, I can shake it off outside. When they want a picnic, I put the plastic on the ground and cover that with the blanket. That way, no moisture from the grass/dirt gets on them or the blanket.) 

 We used tempera paint in assorted colors. 

I globbed it onto a plastic liner I had leftover from those gross refrigerated chicken nuggets the girls like. I don't like them to eat those too often because, well, this -- you can't unsee it. I once made these real chicken nuggets for them instead. They weren't bad, but they were decidedly less popular all around. Anyway, I digress. I was supposed to be discussing noodle crafts.

An artfully arranged noodle...haha

My white noodles. Don't they look like authentic bones? 

What? You think they just look like noodles streakily painted white? Well I never!

After everything dried, we used a large plastic needle and some yarn and set to work stringing the noodles on there. It turns out the eye of our needle was too large to fit through the holes in the wheels, so the girls didn't use their wheel shapes on their jewelry. I put them on mine but had to do it by hand.

Boney necklace and bracelet

No bones about it -- noodles & paint make for an easy weekend craft. 

(No extra charge for all the puns!)

**Update: Especially no extra charge since I just realized I totally made that bone joke before.
Yikes. I need some new material. LOL.**