Macaroni (Pasta) Angel Ornaments

These are instructions for making macaroni angel Christmas ornaments. My mom Susan made these for all of her children and friends many years ago. I was a young child at the time and thought it was just about the coolest thing ever. Ornaments like these adorn our trees to this day.

This project does take some time waiting for parts to dry. I would suggest doing a few at the same time, step by step, this way when you are done you will have more than one and can give them away to all your friends and family.

The cost of the supplies can be expensive because some of the pastas are unique, but most are available in a good supermarket (you can cook all the leftovers!). You can make lots of angels or eat the leftover pasta. We've made these to look like different people.

Supplies:

• wheel pasta (collar)
• bowtie/farfalle pasta (wings)
• elbow macaroni (arms)
• rigatoni pasta (body)(
• acini di pepe (small little balls) pasta (hair)

Paint:

• gold tempura/acrylic paint
• brown tempura/acrylic paint
• white tempura/acrylic paint
• black tempura/acrylic paint
• gold spray paint
• white spray paint
• gold glitter paint (for accents)

• thin tip permanent marker or if your so lucky to have one, a wood burner
• gold and/or iridescent pipe cleaners
• clear glue
• hair colored embroidery thread (for long hair)
• natural unfinished wooden beads (20mm)

Angel Bodies (pasta):

1. Glue a wheel pasta on top of a rigatoni pasta. Let dry completely.

 
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2. Attach two elbow macaroni to the sides of the rigatoni right under the wheel pasta as arms. Let dry completely.

 
3. Attach a bow tie pasta to the rigatoni on the opposite side as the arms. This will be the wings. Let dry completely.

 
4. Once everything is dry you can decide if you want to paint the body or if you want to keep in natural looking. It is recommended that if you want to keep it natural colored to spray it with shellac so it won't absorb moisture.

Angel Heads (wooden beads):

1. Paint the bead the color you would like, let dry.
2. For short hair, put glue on the bead where you would like hair (leave room for face) and roll in the anici di pepe pasta, let dry, then paint it the color desired. These look good all the same color (see little gold angel).

 
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3. For long hair, put some glue inside the bead hole then take a few strands of embroidery floss and stuff it part way down into the hole, let dry. Then take glue and put it on the wooden bead where you would like the hair to fall, press the embroidery floss on to the glue, let dry.

 
4. Draw on a face with a thin tipped permanent marker or burn features on with a wood burner.
5. Cut down one of the pipe cleaners and attach the two ends together to make a circle. This will be the halo. Glue to the top of the head.

 

Putting It All Together:

1. If you want the bodies to be a different color than the head, make sure to spray paint them before putting the angel together. If you want them all one color including the head, leave off the halo and spray paint the whole angel, flipping it over once it is dried on one side.
2. To attach the head to the body, take another short piece of pipe cleaner and put glue on one end and stick it into the middle of the wheel pasta. Put glue on the other end and place that end into the hole in the wooden bead, this will help secure the head in place. Now glue around the bottom of the wooden bead where the head touches the wheel pasta, for extra security.

Finishing Touches:

1. Now your angel is put together and can be embellished with glitter paint if desired.
2. Put a string through the wheel near the wings and tie the two ends together, to hang. Normally we use a very thin gold cord for the hanger, thin ribbon will also work.

 
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3. You can make these look like your friends and family by adjusting the skin color, hair color, eye color, etc. You can even write the name of the person on a piece of leather or fabric and glue to the lower part of the angel body.

Craft By Susan Sanders-Kinzel and Stella Sanders Rivét