The first time I made a batch of playdough for my son I was amazed. Amazed that the recipe worked, amazed at how quick and easy it was and, mostly, amazed at how much nicer it was than the kind that comes in a can. Smooth, supple and soft, even months later. If you're still buying dough in a can, I urge you to convert. And there's a whole world of art supplies you can make in your own kitchen - some I've never even heard of like flubber, glurch, gak and oobleck.
Here's my big bookmark list for making homemade art supplies. Most recipes use common household ingredients and can be made with your kids - a "twofer" Heck, you could all be playing with glurch five minutes from now!
• Basic Playdough - Homemade by Jill for on Skip To My Lou
• Uncooked Playdough - Karol's Kitchen
• Gluten-Free Playdough - Celiac Sprue Association
• Kool-Aid Playdough - Chocolate On My Cranium
• Edible Chocolate Play Dough - Instructables User Its Your Dime
• Edible Peanut Butter Play Dough - Instructables User Its Your Dime
• Scented Playdough - Minieco
• Watercolor Paint - Lilac Silhouette
• Puff Paint - One Crafty Mumma
• Milk Paint - Pantry Spa
• Finger Paint - Creative Kids At Home
*note: some of these names are used interchangeably and without consensus so one man's glurch is another man's gak!
• Flubber/Silly Putty - Pepper Paints
• "Clean" Slime/Oobleck - Ohdeedoh (sometimes referred to as oobleck after the Dr. Seuss book Bartholomew and the Oobleck.
• Gak - Polliwog's Cakewalk (sometimes spelled "gack")
• Silly Putty/Glurch - Toms River Mom
• Glurch - My Little Gems (another version)
• Beeswax Crayons - Wee Folk Art
• Soy Wax Crayons - Wee Folk Art
• Crayon Nibbles - My Magic Mom
• Sidewalk Chalk - Tiffany Teske for Craftbits (find Tiffany at Art, Food and Motherhood)
• Egg Shaped Sidewalk Chalk - Skip To My Lou (slightly different recipe)
I also found some great blogs and websites that list multiple recipes for homemade art supplies all in one place:
• Artists Helping Children - roster of recipes including facepaint, clay, and glue.
• Fresno Family - over a dozen different dough recipes.
• Play Dough Recipe.org - all dough all the time.
• Kid Activities.net - all kinds of doughs here and other recipes here.
• My Mommy Makes It and here - crayons, dough, fingerpaint, gack, and more.
• Better Budgeting - 20 recipes for homemade art supplies.
• Creative Kids at Home
• Blue Bonnet Village - doughs, clays and over six kinds of paints.
• Kinder Art - comprehensive list of recipes.
Have fun!
(Images: 1. Flickr member FrankenberrysKiss licensed for use under Creative Commons 2. Heather Hackett/Lilac Silhouette 3. Sarah Rae Trover/Ohdeedoh 4. Tiffany Teske)
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I was totally amazed at how long our homemade play dough lasted too - way longer than the store bought stuff.
Thanks so much for all the wonderful resources!!
I made homemade play dough for the first time on Friday and I am amazed at how easy it was. Not to mention how awesome it feels. I used the basic recipe from mini-eco. I'm a total convert. There is no reason to buy it ever again.
Thanks for the great list. I can't wait to try my hand at some paint and chalk.
I just made playdough, inspired by this post. Thanks!
wow, thank you! what a helpful post! we just made a fantastic batch of playdough from the first recipe listed. i have to ask though... how did they get such AWESOME colors, as photographed? holy cow, what type of coloring is that?!
We started out with Kid's Concoctions about 7 years ago with my granddaughter. There are some great (super easy and pleasing) recipes in there. The same couple has recently released The Ultimate Book of Kid Concoctions. Highly recommended after many successes.
Unfortunately the link to "Basic Playdough - Elika Mahoney" seems to be a rip off of Homemade by Jill who guest blogged this at Skip to My Lou http://www.skiptomylou.org/2010/06/03/homemade-playdough-from-homemade-by-jill/
These are some great ideas. Bookmarking this for when my daughter gets a little older!
vancouver1986 - thanks for the heads up, I'm switching it now.
Carrie
I recommend melting broken crayons into heart-shaped molds for non-sweet Valentine's Day treats for your preschooler's friends. They're always a big hit.
I love the repurposing crayons idea. My son when he was younger broke them to small pieces. SO will fix this.
On the playdogh front - of course making yourself is cheaper, but I buy large blocks of plastelina - one could buy on amazon in lots of colors and it NEVER dries out
This is a fantastic idea! As a stay at home mom, I need all the help I can get when it comes to saving money.
DFused.blogspot.com
How simple and easy is it to make your own art supply's! Beats buying it all the time and its something the kids can get involved with to!
My 12 year old daughter just did her science fair project over Glurch vs. Oobleck. I had as much fun doing it as she did!
made the play dough using the first recipe it turned out awesome! i used liquid food colouring not the gel ones as recommended and the colour was just as intense.
we're a "washable" kids supply household and it gets a little much. we've recycled broken crayons into neat shapes via the micro + ikea ice cube molds. they have the best shapes! little fish, hearts, stars.
Bartholomew and the Oobleck ! i loved that book as a kid!
so many great ideas here. I've made Gak before - we call it goop :D