Play dough day

I've been trying to do more art projects with B lately, so yesterday, I finally got around to making the homemade play dough that I pinned forever ago. I used the no-cook recipe from The Imagination Tree, though I ended up having to tweak it a good deal. I followed her original recipe, using just 1.5 cups of water (she says 1.5-2 cups), but it was super sticky and didn't feel anything like play dough, so I ended up adding probably close to a cup more flour before I could get it to the right consistency. But once it was there, it was perfect!

 

I divided the dough into eight balls (because that's how many storage containers I had) and set to work coloring each one. I just added a few drops of food coloring to each ball and then kneaded them until the color was evenly distributed.

I used both liquid and gel food coloring (just what I had on hand), and the gel definitely worked better, if you're interested in trying it. For one of the balls (top right in the pic above), I left the color out and added colored sugar crystals to give it some texture. I like the way it turned out, too.

B was a little unsure about it at first, but after a few minutes and some demonstrations, he started to show more interest.

Of course, he started by eating it (this was one reason I wanted to make homemade; he tries to eat everything!), but then I showed him how to poke and smash it, and we brought out his kitchen utensils set and tried to use the spatula and tongs to manipulate the dough.

Mostly, he loved picking up the tray I'd set them on and dumping them on the floor. It's a work in progress. :)

Oh, and if you plan on making this yourself, may I suggest using gloves for the coloring part? Eek! Believe me, the pictures don't do it justice.

 

And don't worry, once the color's incorporated, it doesn't seem to spread or bleed anymore, so it didn't get on B, the floor, or the utensils. This stuff is really great, and when stored in a sealed container (I used these), it's supposed to last several months. We'll see!

 

 Now, on to homemade finger paints...