VBS Crafts: How to Dye Rice

Many VBS crafts and activities use dyed rice.  It’s an easy and inexpensive project that is SO fun for all ages!  Here is a super quick way to dye rice for your next craft project or activity.

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There are two methods below to dye rice based on how much you need to dye at once.

SMALL BATCH DYED RICE

If you need to dye only a small amount (a few pounds) or want a small quantity of each color, use this small batch method.

Supplies
Rice (from Amazon or Sam’s Club)
Food coloring
Distilled white vinegar
Gallon size Ziploc bags
Optional: Measuring cup
Flat surface for drying (baking sheet, empty cardboard box, etc)
Trash bag to line drying surface
Paper towels to line the drying surface

Instructions

1. Scoop rice into a Ziploc bag (I dyed about 4 cups at a time using this method).

2. Add white vinegar to the bag of rice. I used about 1/2 cup of vinegar per 4 cups of rice. (If you don’t want to measure the vinegar, it’s really okay… I tried several ratios and they all worked fine as long as there was enough vinegar to mix the color around.)

3. Add food coloring to the bag of rice. You can use anywhere from a few drops (for light colored rice) to a bunch of drops (for dark colored rice).  I did a few batches with different amounts of food coloring so I ended up with several shades of each color.

4. Seal the Ziploc bag tightly.  My one year old was helping today, so I double bagged it just to be safe.

5. Shake/smush the rice around in the bag until the rice is well coated with the food coloring.  This took me 2 minutes or less.

6. Dump the rice onto a flat surface and spread it out to dry.  Use cookie sheets and/or shallow cardboard boxes lined with a trash bag, then a layer of paper towels.  The paper towels soak up any extra liquid and speed up the drying process!  (Once the rice is finished drying, you can turn the trash bags inside out and use them for trash!)

7. Once the rice is completely dry, transfer to another container for storage.  Ziploc bags work well!  Make sure the rice is COMPLETELY dry before you seal it up.  My rice was dry to the touch in about 2 hours, but I didn’t seal it for a few days just to be safe.

LARGE BATCH DYED RICE

If you need to dye large amounts (several pounds or more) of each color, use this large batch method.

Supplies
Rice (from Amazon or Sam’s Club)
Food coloring
Distilled white vinegar
5 gallon buckets with lids
Optional: Measuring cup
Large plastic spoon
Flat surface for drying (baking sheet, empty cardboard box, etc)
Trash bag to line drying surface
Paper towels to line the drying surface

Instructions

1. Scoop rice into a clean, empty 5 gallon bucket.

2. Add white vinegar to the bucket of rice. I used about 1 cup of vinegar per 8 cups of rice. (If you don’t want to measure the vinegar, it’s really okay… I tried several ratios and they all worked fine as long as there was enough vinegar to mix the color around.)

3. Add food coloring to the bucket. You can use anywhere from a tablespoon (for light colored rice) to a 1/4 or 1/2 cup (for dark colored rice) of food coloring.  I did a few batches with different amounts of food coloring so I ended up with several shades of each color.  I just dumped some in each batch, I didn’t measure at all!

4. Using the large plastic spoon, stir the rice until it is well coated with the food coloring.  This took me 2-3 minutes or less depending on how large my batch was.

6. Dump the rice onto a flat surface and spread it out to dry.  Use cookie sheets and/or shallow cardboard boxes lined with a trash bag, then a layer of paper towels.  (Once the rice is finished drying, you can turn the trash bags inside out and use them for trash!)

7. Once the rice is completely dry, transfer to another container for storage.  I rinsed the 5 gallon buckets out after mixing in them, then used them to store the dyed rice.  Make sure the rice is COMPLETELY dry before you seal it up.  My rice was dry to the touch in about 2 hours, but I left the lids off the buckets for a few days just to be safe.

A note on supplies: You may be wondering how much vinegar and food coloring to purchase since I didn’t use many measurements!  I dyed a total of 25 pounds of rice (in 3 different colors) in less than 2 hours total today.  I used two colors of food coloring (the brand linked above).  I only used 1-2 inches of color out of each bottle, so I still have a bunch left for my next project!  The little containers of food coloring from my pantry would not have been enough for this size project.  I used a 1/2 gallon jug of vinegar and still have some left over.  I used 6 cardboard boxes plus 2 cookie sheets to dry the rice.

I am a long-time Vacation Bible School lover.  I’ve lead in several capacities throughout the VBS world and am currently our church’s VBS director.  It is a joy for me to be able to share VBS ideas and resources with others!  I will continue to share VBS ideas here.  Follow the blog to see more of our ideas and planning!  Please let me know if there are any specific VBS items or ideas you need help with!