How to Make Your Own Play Dough Kits
Play Dough kits seem to be gaining in populatory by the minute. I can see why, both of my kiddos have been entertained by our Halloween play dough kits for HOURS over the past week.
This was my first attempt at making my own play dough, and thanks to I Heart Nap Time and her amazing recipe, it was easy as could be!
Here are the ingredients I Heart Nap Times recipe calls for:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup salt
- 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. Trust me, it can be a bit of an arm work out as the liquid starts to turn to dough, but keep on stirring! Once it was thick and dough-ey, I removed it from the pot and placed it on a sheet of parchment paper to cool.
Some of the big perks to this recipe is it makes alot and it keeps well. We have just been storing the play dough in the plastic container shown in the pictures when not playing with it and it has kept well for at least two weeks.
I was able to color the play dough using gel stain from Hobby Lobby. I started the coloring process by adding a small amount of dough to a zip lock baggie and 3-4 drops of coloring. I would knead it in the back until there it was somewhat absorbed into the dough, then I would remove the dough and knead by hand. By starting the coloring process in the baggie, it helped my hands from taking on any coloring.
Once I had my colored dough ready, I placed them into plastic containers from Hobby Lobby and added all sorts of fun Halloween trinkets. Pom-Poms, spiders, googley eyes, pumpkin cookie cutters… the options are really endless on what you can add!
Be sure to also check out our Halloween Sensory Box:
