Play dough kits seem to be all the rage over the past year. They seem to be popping up on my social media feed more and more with each passing week. And there’s good reason for their growing popularity! Play dough kits are a great way to spark your child creativity, ignite their imagination and overall a great open-ended play activity.
Play Dough Kit Theme Ideas
Themes for play dough kits are pretty much endless! Here’s a list of ideas to get you started and some photos of the ones we have done:
-Space
-On the Farm
-Jungle
-Dinosaurs
-Fairy & Unicorn
-Gardening
-Birthday (make your own cupcake)
-Christmas Tree (we did candy land Christmas theme and it was a HIT!)
-Build a turkey
-Build a Monster (Halloween Theme)
Where to Find Play Dough Kit Accessories
It all starts with a good container. I like to use containers that have the removable compartments. This allows to me make the compartments as small of large as I would like them, but also have the option to remove them all together if I just need one big box for the supplies. We’ve done both “mini” and full size kits for our girls. It all just depends on the amount of items I have that fit the theme.
For our kit holder, we use a storage containers from Home Depot that are actually meant to hold screw and bolts but it works perfectly. They have a mini version and a large version. These kits come on a lot of outings with us and are frequently tossed into my purse or the diaper bag when on the go. I love that these storage containers have a heavy duty clasp that holds them closed and keeps the contents from spilling out. Here’s the link to the containers.
Themed Items for Play Dough Kits
When it comes to the accessories for the play dough kit and where to buy them, here are a few of my favorite spots:
-Hobby Lobby (our wooden rollers are from HL, their wood section is filled with great stuff!)
-Joanns (they have a section for doll houses that always has great stuff!)
-The Dollar Store
-Target (dollar spot, party favor section,
Home-Made Play Dough Recipe
Our trusty play dough recipe has been made about 100 times in the past 3 years. We love it because it makes a good amount of play dough; enough that it can be broken into 3 or 4 sections and colored. One batch goes a long way!
Here’s the recipe:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup salt (salt is a must- it keeps it from molding!)
- 4 teaspoons cream of tartar
- 2 cups lukewarm water
- 2 Tablespoons of vegetable oil
Add the flour, salt, and cream of tarter into a pan on the stove (no heat just yet) and mix well. Next, stir in the warm water and vegetable oil. Turn stove to medium heat and start stirring! I found that using a sturdy wooden spoon was best as it was able to scrape the bottom of the pan as the mixture began to thicken. Continue stirring until you have a solid mass of play dough. Once it was thick and dough-ey, I removed it from the pot and placed it on a sheet of parchment paper to cool.
We store our play dough wrapped in saran wrap inside of an air tight container.
Be sure to follow along on Instagram for updates on our newest play dough kit themes!
