Easy Way to Make Homemade Play Dough

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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!

Don’t forget to check out our other family fun craft ideas.

Homemade Play Dough

Homemade Play Dough

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5 from 14 reviews

• Author: Heather l The Super Mom Life

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Description

An easy way make homemade play dough using ingredients you probably already have in your kitchen.

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Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour + 1 tbsp all-purpose flour (separated)
• 1/2 cup iodized salt
• 1 tbsp cream of tartar
• 1 1/2 tsp vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup boiling water
• 8 drops food coloring (optional)
• 1 drop essential oils (optional)

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Instructions

• In a medium bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups flour, salt, cream of tartar and oil.
• Boil water and move to a small bowl or measuring cup.
• Add food coloring and essential oils and stir until mixed well.
• Add the colored water to the dry mixture and mix with a wooden spoon or silicone spatula until combined.
• Take a bit of the remaining flour and coat your hands. The rest should go into the dough mixture.
• Mix with your hands, kneading until the dough is soft and not sticky.
• Refrigerate when not using your play dough. It should last 1-2 weeks.

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XOXO