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	Pasta Angel

These are a little tedious to make, probably not suited for children under ten. They are very inexpensive. They can be used as neckerchief slides (of course), but some non-scouting people may prefer to wear them as pins or use them as Christmas ornaments. This would be a good project for a group to make to give to folks in nursing homes or hospitals, or make a bunch and give them to religious leaders to give away.

It is best to work on these a little bit at a time over several days. This will give the glue and paint a chance to dry.

The gold rings and pin backs are available in craft stores.

Grits are a corn based meal that can be found in grocery stores usually in with the cereals.

• Glue the ends of two of the elbow macaroni together with white glue. This could be done ahead of time to make the project easier or quicker.
• Inspect the bow tie pasta and select unblemished ones for the wings. Ones that have only one good side can be used for the body of the angel.
• Take one of the half defective bow tie pasta and carefully break off the bad end using pliers. Check how it fits in the wings. I like to use the single dimple side of the bow tie for the front of the wings and body.
• Glue the half bow tie pasta to a full one using white glue (or E-6000™). Prop up the wide end of the half bow tie about 1/4". This allows more contact between the two bow ties so the glue joint will be stronger. It will also make the angel curve away from a garment so there isn't as much pressure on it than if it was flat.
• Glue on a medium size shell macaroni for the head. The edge of the shell macaroni will be flat on one side and curved on the other. Run a bead of glue on the curved edge and use this as the bottom of the head.
• Glue the two elbow macaroni to the bow tie pasta with white glue. Let dry.
• Using a toothpick, combine grits with white glue until you get a rough textured mixture. You'll need a couple pinches of grits for each angel.
• Place grits and glue mixture on shell macaroni as hair. A toothpick helps with placing the mixture. Be sure to put some hair on the back of the angel's head.
• Allow it to dry on the plastic table cover. This can take a few hours to get hard.
• Place angels upside down on newspaper and paint the back with white spray paint. Let dry - this should only take a few minutes.
• Turn the angel over and spray paint the front. Spray it from all directions to get down into the folds of the pasta. Let dry.
• Use hot glue (or E-6000™) to attach a PVC ring, pin back, or a loop of string/ribbon to the back of the angel.
• Use E-6000™ to attach a gold ring on the head of the angel as a halo. Tilt the halo up in the front so it appears to be floating above the head.
• Paint as desired. Translucent sparkle paints look good. But if you really want to make the angel glow, first paint it with a translucent paint in the color you want. After this has dried thoroughly, paint with liquid glitter. These are either available commercially or you can watered down white glue and add your own glitter (the smaller the glitter the better).
• Draw on eyes with marker.

Here are some of the color/glitter combinations that I tried.

Blue with multi-glitter	White with milti-glitter	Yellow with multi-glitter
Blue with gold glitter	Yellow with gold glitter	Gold with multi-glitter