Saturday 5 May 2012

Play-dough: make or buy?


Do you make your own play-dough? I do.... but not so I can show off to my mummy friends. I do it because I have weird play-dough psychology. If I buy it, every little bit must be put back in it's airtight container after use, nothing is to be left out! When the play-dough is homemade I am totally laid back about it. You want to keep your play-dough stars out to go dry and crusty – sure. You want to leave some in the garden to get wet and slimy – go for it. You want to paint it and get biscuit crumbs in it – no worries.

It does help that I have found a great no-cook recipe from the Imagination Tree. From experience I always use table salt (rather than cooking salt) to ensure a smooth texture and I also add the food colouring to the hot water.

Here are two projects where our homemade play-dough never made it's way back into the tub.

A little garden...
We created a little garden world from a plastic takeaway sushi box that came with decorative plastic grass. Cakey filled the container with pink play-dough, she added mini paddle pop sticks and stuck flower stickers to some of them. We made a little swing from sticks, a straw, paper clips and sticky tape. Experimenting Mom has made a much better swing using an egg carton for a seat. Cakey loved her little garden, she did not want to pack it up. She kept it on display in her room until the play-dough got really crusty.


A little beach...
This was inspired by a lovely under the sea play-dough scene from Nurturestore. Following a trip to the beach, Cakey wanted to make something beachy but we had no sand or yellow play-dough. Our solution was to paint our blue and purple play-dough yellow and cover the whole lot in glitter!

We made beach umbrellas from patty pans and straws
The pegs are people on their towels

The Imagination Tree has recently updated their brilliant no cook recipe that I use, I haven't had a chance to try it yet. Another recipe I am keen to try is Just for Daisy's microwave play-dough.

Do you have a great play-dough recipe?

If this is your first visit to at home with Ali – welcome. If you like it, you can follow along through our facebook page or maybe think about subscribing. Cheers Ali

Pin It

Linked to Link and Learn, Sharing Saturday

11 comments:

  1. we LOVE to make our own playdough. and i totally know what you mean... since it's so inexpensive, i'm very laid back about what's done with it. plus i think that it stays soft longer!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I am glad I am not the only one who get weird with bought playdough.

      Delete
  2. LOVE IT! Thanks for the link Ali. I too am more free with the homemade playdough. I love these little playdough worlds. My Little one loves making food from playdough. I loved the glittery dough and the little swing!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My pleasure Mansi, when I saw your swing I thought 'why didn't we do it that way'. We had to stick the little animal onto the cardboard swing with playdough but he could have just comfortably sat in an egg carton.

      Delete
  3. I make it - why? because I can't stand the colours being mixed however if I've made it myself then the colours can be mixed all over the place and when they become brown... what can I do? I can make some more beautifully coloured stuff as well.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I just read your post on that - great colours.
      http://rainydaymum.co.uk/day-5-30-days-of-hands-on-play

      Delete
  4. We make ours using The Imaginations Recipe too. It really is the best. What a great tip to add the food coloring to the hot water.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I find I get smoother colour by adding it to the water - it does mean that we only get one colour per batch though. If you added colour after making the playdough then you could make loads of colours.

      Delete
  5. I like your projects! I made play dough for the first time ever last winter and I don't think I'll buy the store bought stuff anymore!

    ReplyDelete
  6. So fun!! Thank you for sharing at Sharing Saturday! I hope you are having a wonderful week!

    ReplyDelete

I would love it if you would leave me a comment.