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If your kids love to create, play with play dough, or even slime, they are going to love this homemade play dough! It’s super easy to make and you probably have the ingredients in your kitchen right now!
I’ve always been a fan of the possibilities of play dough. But I worry about the ingredients of store-bought things lately. While the Play Dough you buy in the store says it’s primarily made of a mixture of water, flour, and salt, there are definitely some other ingredients in their proprietary recipe that we don’t know about. The idea of knowing exactly what my kids are playing with sounds a lot better to me, plus it’s cheaper to make your own and a LOT of fun!
A Few Tips:
Make sure that you are using iodized salt (that’s table salt) and not a more coarse salt like kosher salt. It will make a difference.
I use all-purpose flour, though I’m not 100% sure that it wouldn’t work with any other type of flour as I haven’t tried that yet. If you do, please comment and let me know!
You don’t have to use food coloring if you don’t mind your kids playing with a beige, neutral color homemade play-dough. If you do use food coloring, I’ve found that food coloring gel works really well! Depending on how bright you want the color to be, you can adjust the number of drops. We stopped at 8 since it seemed to work pretty well for the color we were looking for. Though for the lighter colors (like yellow), you may want to add a few extra drops in.
Make sure the water is boiling. It will make a difference! Adding the color into the boiling water does decrease the chances of you or your little one getting the dye on your hands.
The one ingredient you might not have in your kitchen is cream of tartar. You may even be wondering what it’s used for. Cream of Tartar is actually potassium hydrogen tartrate, a byproduct of winemaking. It’s a powder form of an acidic substance similar to lemon or vinegar and is used as a way to bind other products together.
While everyone in our house loves it, there was a little debate going on in our house about this homemade play dough and whether we could call it play dough. My youngest thinks it feels exactly like play-dough. My middle daughter called it more of a butter slime. There was also mention of a mixture of cloud slime and play dough. No matter what you call it, I can tell you that it’s fun to make and keeps the kids entertained whether they are squishing it or creating something with it.
My kids had the BEST time making this homemade play-dough. And of course, my 11-year-old begged me to allow her to create a video of her playing with the newly made homemade play-dough. It was somewhere around 7 minutes long and while I could personally watch it because I find it relaxing, I edited it down to under a minute for you.
Now, I’m excited to share the recipe for our easy homemade play dough with you. If you do make it, I’d love for you to share a photo and tag us on social media or comment below and let me know what you and your kids think. We love feedback from our readers!
I'm so honored that you've found us! I'm Heather, a Mom of 3 who blogs about parenting, food, occasional travel and how I overcame my daily struggle with anxiety. I miss sleeping and rely on coffee and laughter to get me through the day. I hope you enjoy and visit often!
This is an excellent DIY playdough recipe. My daughter is still very much into this. She’ll go nuts when I tell her we will make some ourselves! Thank you for sharing!
I love this so much. When my son was little he ALWAYS left the play dough cap open, which meant I had to keep buying it. This would have been so much better.
My kids LOVE playing with play dough, even as teens. The great thing about them being older is they can make it themselves now.
This is awesome! My kids are older but they’d still have fun with this. We’ll have to make it.
This is an excellent DIY playdough recipe. My daughter is still very much into this. She’ll go nuts when I tell her we will make some ourselves! Thank you for sharing!
Ooh I really didn’t know that it was possible to make your own Play Doh! Thanks for the recipe! Will have to try it out.
I love this so much. When my son was little he ALWAYS left the play dough cap open, which meant I had to keep buying it. This would have been so much better.
This is so great! My kids used to use play dough all the time when they were little. I wish I’d had a recipe like this back then.
That is super easy to make homemade playdough! No need to buy it anymore. Such a fun activity to do with the kids.