Turn leftover pasta into pretty little bow pins.

BOWS are ubiquitous – they’re simple yet stylish, and not just for little girls. Any blouse, adorned with a sweet little bow, adds instantaneous innocence to your persona, besides brightening up the outfit.

But not just any bow will do – thin ribbons, for one, sometimes make for tacky frou-frou. Thicker ones seem to exude a cuter demeanour, a la Hello Kitty and her big red bow.

Here’s an essential tip to help you start your own bow-churning factory at home: head out to the nearest supermarket for a pack of bow-shaped pasta. With the shape already intact, all you have to do is slick on some paint, add a tiny pin at the back, and what you’ll have is an easy-peasy DIY pasta bow accessory!

The tutorial below shows you just how to do that, and the magic of using a teensy toothpick to paint on mini polka dots. Stock up on acrylic paint in contrasting colours; shiny nail colour works just as well.

Paint on flowers and pictures if you must. If glitter is your thing, spread and smoothen craft glue over a pasta bow piece then sprinkle on shimmery dust to your heart’s content. Can’t find pin backs? Try safety pins or hair clips, or glue the bows onto a plastic hair band.

Here’s to a brand new obsession with bows! Happy New Year!

> Lee Mei Li gets her crafty inspirations from making ‘ami­gurumi’, a type of Japanese crochet doll. Meet her woven whimsies at www.amiguruMEI.com.

Pasta bow pin

Skill level: Easy

Time required: 20 minutes

Stuff you’ll need: Bow-shaped pasta, pin backs, acrylic paint in red and white, toothpicks, paintbrush and hot glue gun.

1 Plug in your hot glue gun. Let it warm up a little, then apply a strip of hot glue onto the centre of a bow-shaped pasta.

2 Carefully place one of the pin backs onto the hot glue strip and press to secure it in place.

3 Squeeze some red acrylic paint onto a piece of scrap cardboard. Use the pin back as a holder for the pasta piece – start painting generously all over the front of the bow.

4 Let the piece air-dry for five minutes. Apply another layer of paint. Leave it to dry for another 10 minutes.

5 Dip one end of a toothpick into some white acrylic paint and spruce up the red bow with tiny polka dots.

6 Easy-peasy! Make more in other colours and pin them onto bags, shoes and belts!

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