My kids love to play with their food. I was looking for a project to keep them occupied one rainy weekend, and we decided to go for a classic: macaroni art. There was only one problem. We were out of macaroni! (An insane impossibility in a house with three kids!)

After messing around with dry spaghetti noodles and deciding they were too long and pokey to be any fun, we raided the rest of the pantry. Nothing hard and dry was off-limits. They used rice, barley, popcorn, and just about every spice in my cupboard. Their masterpieces were so unexpectedly beautiful, I ended up framing them.

Here’s how we did it:

All you need is:
– Cardboard
– Elmer’s Glue
– Food

1. Cut a square or rectangle out of heavy cardboard. We cut up a box from Amazon into 12″ x 12″ pieces. Just pick a size you can easily frame.

2. Squeeze out a few thick ribbons of glue into shapes scattered on the board. My kids started with hearts and spirals. Stick the larger items like popcorn onto the glue lines.

3. Outline a single shapes in an empty area (like a triangle) with glue, fill with more glue, and then smooth with your finger. Sprinkle a smaller food item over the shape, like oregano.

4. Repeat until the board is full! You can use a hair dryer to speed up drying.

Happy crafting!