Playdough - homemade

What's funner than playing with playdough?  How about making it!  It's a great gift to give a child!


Homemade playdough smells better, feels better, if the kids do eat some of it, kids will be kids, it won't harm them,   AND it comes out of the carpet!  I've known some store-bought playdough to be like glue in carpet and never come out.  If this home-made playdough does get in the carpet, get out what you can, let the rest dry, then vacuum it up!

BASIC PLAYDOUGH

1 c. flour 

2  t. cream of tartar
½ c. salt
1 c. water

1 T. vegetable or olive oil
Food coloring (optional)

   Combine the dry ingredients in a saucepan and the wet ingredients in a separate bowl. Slowly stir the liquids into the dry mixture.

   Cook on the Stove Top:

Cook over medium heat for 3 minutes, stirring until the mixture pulls away from sides of pan.

   or Cook in the Microwave:

Heat at med. temp. for 1½ min in a microwave safe bowl. Check, stir and heat again 1 min. until it begins to solidify.

     Cool slightly and knead gently. Store in an airtight container when cool.

*****

Sweet Smelling dough

Only do this if your kids are older as the little ones might think it smells/tastes good enough to eat. 
Add a few drops of  food flavoring extracts.  Vanilla, almond, rootbeer(will turn the dough brown), peppermint, etc. 
Mixing in a little powdered kool-aid will color the dough and also make it smell. (Mix it in a plastic bag so your hands don't become colored!)

Create some MAGIC dough! 

Make a few golf ball-sized balls of plain white dough.  Push your finger into the center of each ball of dough to create a 'hole'.  Place a few drops of food-coloring into each hole and carefully squeeze the ball shut, making sure the color doesn't come out. Now put each ball of dough in a  separate plastic baggie and close the bag. At least have one ball of red, one of blue, and one of yellow.
Let the kids squeeze the dough inside the bag until all the color is completely mixed with the dough.
You can also put multiple colors of food-coloring in each hole to create custom colored playdough.
The kids get excited when the dough turns from white into a new color!
Now let the kids mix the different colors of dough to create even more colors.

Perfect Playdough Tools

Contain the mess by using a plastic  picnic tablecloth or placemats or  for each child to 'play' on.
If you're worried about playdough on the floor under the table, put a picnic tablecloth under the table area.
Who said you had to use cookie cutters for just cookies?
What about plastic forks, spoons, and butter knives.
Got any popsicle sticks?
Toy car tires leave cool tracks when you 'drive' on the dough. Let them dry well and shake to get the dough out.
A Slotted spoon pressed down on a ball of dough makes tubes of dough when the dough pushes through it (like spaghetti or hair).
Plastic Spatulas help you turn over or lift up some dough.
Test different objects to see the indentions that will remain!

Enjoy becoming a kid again!