Expressions of You

Well I have some time on my hands this morning while I’m sitting at the dentists office!

So I’ve mentioned a number of times before that I spend a lot of time looking through StumbleUpon for inspiration. I love working with my hands and having a finished product that I know I created. Nothing’s better!

Well recently I’ve been seeing a number of posts on homemade play-dough. It’s been a REALLY long time since I purchased any play-dough for my kiddos, because I have 3 of them and they don’t share very well, so it’s expensive. So this homemade idea really struck a cord for me. What’s better than making it by hand, and saving money at the same time? Great right?

I’m going to update this with pictures really soon, but for now I’m just going to tell you what I did.

INGREDIENTS NEEDED:
• 4 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup iodized salt
• 4 teaspoons Cream of Tarter
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 4 cups water

In a medium sized pot put your ingredients in. I’ve done this a few times and it doesn’t seem like they need to be entered in any specific order. I just dump it all in.

***Now it’s important to note that you need a REALLY heavy duty spoon, either wooden or plastic will do. AND you need a lot of patience. It takes a long time for the dough to cook.***

Ok once you have all of your ingredients in the pan you will cook on medium heat stirring constantly. You’ll know it’s done when it pulls from the sides and started to form a ball. It looked to me like over cooked mashed potatoes. (just go with me on this one)

Once you’ve reached the consistency you desire you’ll want to unload your dough from your pan onto a working surface. I protected my surface/counter top with some wax paper to keep my counter clean.

***CAUTION the dough is HOT*** I know it seems self explanatory since you just took it off the stove, but I MUST learn the hard way. You’ll want to let it rest a little bit so you don’t burn yourself when working with it.

I wanted to make several colors so I divided mine into 4 sections and kneaded them separately. I kneaded them just a bit before adding color.

Now on the color it’s really up to you, but I found that the gel colors worked best. The colors were just a lot more vibrant. You’ll add color to your desired depth. Remember that you can always add more, but you can’t take it back. (I learned this when trying to make purple. Word to the wise, just don’t do it) Working with the raw die can be challenging. I didn’t wear gloves the first time I did it, and my hands were red for a few days! Also you have to be careful to not transfer colors between batches.

Ok back to kneading the dough. I made a little well in the middle of my dough ball and added the color into there. I folded it over and kept kneading until the color was evenly mixed. As you mix you’ll be able to tell how deep your color is. If you’re mixing colors I suggest doing one color at a time do you can make sure you have a proper balance. Once the raw color is incorporated you won’t need the gloves any more.

Play til your heart’s content. (I sneak and play with the dough I made my kiddos all the time)

Also I found out if you don’t add any color and knead it really well. It’s ALMOST white dough. They mess it up pretty quick mixing their dough but it was fun for a few minutes.

Be sure to store these in airtight containers. The small ziplock sauce containers work great!

My middle son is turning 6 in a couple of weeks and we’ll be giving sets of homemade play dough for his favors.

I’ll show you a picture of those soon.