Happy and Homemade: Play Dough

I'm on a little of an "adventures in art exploration" with Annie lately...partly because I am naturally drawn to that sort of stuff and mostly because Annie is WAY into coloring, drawing, glittering, painting, you get the gist...

Anyways, we have been exploring different media and are gearing up for The Pineapple Paintbrush's (Dani Henricksen) Online Preschool Art Class in a few weeks (check it out here). I decided we needed to expand our play dough collection and am really drawn to the idea of making it rather than buying it. Not only is it non-toxic and you can handpick what colors you want, but Annie and I would get the experience of making it together. I found several great recipes on blogs out there and ended up using this recipe from First Art: Art Experiences for Toddlers and Twos by MaryAnn F. Kohl:(via Tinker Lab---great art/kids/preschool blog by the way):

Awesome Playdough



This is the full recipe but I halved the recipe and had tons. I could probably have split it in half again and still had plenty.

5 cups Water
2 1/2 cups Salt – an entire container of Morton’s-style
3 Tbsp Cream of tartar — this can be bought in bulk at Whole Foods, or found in the spice section of big grocery stores
Food Coloring: 1 tsp for pastel, 3 tbsp for vivid
10 Tbsp Oil — I use Canola, but any veggie oil should work
5 cups Flour

Combine the water, salt, cream of tartar and food coloring in a large saucepan on a low heat, and stir with a wooden spoon. As the mixture heats up, stir in the oil and then the flour.

Mix, until the dough comes away from the edges of the pan, starts looking dry, and it becomes difficult to move the spoon. Pinch a piece between two fingers…if it’s not sticky it’s done. Remove from heat. Cool until it can be handled.

Place on counter and knead 3-4 times. Store in an air tight container or large Ziplock bag.

Making the sludge...I mean play dough

Our tools of choice...roller, plastic pie slicer, assorted cookie cutters

She had quite the time making tons of flowers and hearts.
Don't you just love how such simple things can foster such creativity? I do!