How to Make Playdough, Tips, Tricks and playdough Recipes Galore (2024)

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Have you ever made playdough? May I confess? I have six children, ages 15 to 5, and before this week I had only ever made playdough once in my lifetime! That seems a bit selfish somehow.

I decided to remove this blight from my mommy-record and make playdough this week for my twins. Since Tuesday, we’ve made no less than seven batches! That’s a lot of playdough. One of those batches was for my 13 year old. Another surprise. Maybe if I’d made more playdough with him when he was little, he wouldn’t have been so inclined, but truthfully they just wanted to have a molding war. (Boys!)

Making your own playdough is fast, inexpensive, easy, and fun! I thought it might be good to share with you some lessons learned so your hands don’t end up covered in red dye.

How to Make Playdough, Tips, Tricks and playdough Recipes Galore (1)

Tips to Make Playdough Quickly

Tip One: Make sure you have all the ingredients for playdough before you tell your five year old, “We’re going to make playdough today.” Yep, multiply that times two disappointed five year olds and you will understand why I found myself driving to the grocery store at 3 in the afternoon with five year old twins in tow.

Most recipes for playdough will include flour, salt, cream of tartar, and vegetable oil. Just go ahead and add these things to your grocery list right now.

Tip Two: If you have more than one child, make sure you have enough ingredients to make every.single.child their own batch of playdough. That’s 1/2 cup of salt per child, a lotta salt if you have six kids.

Tip Three: Did I mention that making your own playdough is fast? Get the ingredients out ahead of time, measure the water, have everything sitting next to the pot.

Tip Four: Let your kids help. They will think you are amazing. If your 13 year old wants his own — do what I did and tell him to make his own without help. It’s good practice for being a dad.

Tip Five: Do not, and I repeat DO NOT decide to split one batch into two colors by adding the dye AFTER you take it off the stove. Your fingers will be red for days. Just trust me on this one, and make a different batch for each color, adding the dye when you add the water on the stove. Trust me.

Tip Six: Soak your saucepan right away. You will thank me later.

Tips to Make Playdough Inexpensively

Making playdough is inexpensive. When you make playdough, consider these tips for getting the most bang for your buck.

Tip One: Make sure you have zipper bags or plastic containers with lids. It will keep a very long time in a sealed container.

Tip Two: Buy the cheapest cream of tartar you can find. a McCormicks Jar is almost $5.99 on Amazon for 2.6 ounces. One jar makes about three and a half batches. On the other hand, a big 2-pound container of Badia Cream of Tartar on Amazon is only $17.98. If you think your kids might like this, buy the jug now so you have itin two days with Prime Shipping. One more reason I love Amazon Prime.

Tip Three: Use cheap food dye. I thought my cake decorating gels were more expensive, but it turns out they are a better deal at $1.65 per ounceand it doesn’t take as much to make gorgeous playdough.McCormicks at the grocery store was $2.50 an ounce (four small vials). Add cake decorating geldyes to your shopping list.

Tricksto Make Playdough Easily

Making playdough is easy! It’s a quick process, and the finished product stores for days in a zipper bag. Here are some tricks to make the process go a little smoother.

Trick One: Measure your dry ingredients directly into your saucepan, and have your child mix the ingredients before turning on the heat. Thoroughly mixed dry ingredients make a smoother playdough.

Trick Two: Many of the recipes include extra ingredients like apple-scented shampoo. This will replace some of the liquid, so put about 1 ounce less water into the playdough then what your recipe calls for. Add more water as necessary, but this will prevent you from having a dough that is too wet.

Trick Three: You can use a paper plate for kneading the dough at the end if you don’t have any wax paper. Or you could just go add wax paper to your grocery list right now. Either one works, but I kinda like using a paper plate. I just handed the boys their dough on a paper plate and let them knead it themselves. It also helps contain the crumbs.

Tricks to MakePlaydough Fun (and Educational!)

My friend Jill at Blessed Beyond a Doubt introduced me to scented playdough and playdough mats when she posted Apple Pie ScentedPlaydough and Mats and encouraged me to write a similar post with a Pumpkin Pie variation on the scent. What fun this is! My boys were beside themselves with excitement when we experimented with different pumpkin scent variations for my blog post. Then they found out we were making Apple Playdough. Seasonal playdough colors, scents, and play mats take this playdough fun to a whole new level.

Tip One: Use fun colors. Like neon. Everybody loves neon playdough.

Tip Two: Use cool scents. Like apple-scented shampoo for instance. It makes the playdough awesome.

Tip Three: Find fun playdough mats, print them out, laminate them, and have them on hand.

I figured the easiest way to help you with this was to link to my favorite recipes and playdough mats right here. Bookmark this page, and come back!

Playdough Recipes

Pumpkin Pie Playdough with Printable from Blessed Beyond a Doubt (yours truly!)

ApplePie ScentedPlaydough and Matsfrom Blessed Beyond a Doubt

Orange Sherbert Playdough and Printable Circus Palsfrom Blessed Beyond a Doubt

Carrot Cake Smelly Playdoughfrom Blessed Beyond a Doubt

Rainbow Glitter Salt Doughfrom Imagination Tree

No Cook Playdough Recipefrom Imagination Tree

Three Edible Playdough Recipes from Moms Who Think

KoolAid Playdough Recipe from the 36th Avenue

No Cook Coconut PlaydoughRecipe from Learning 4 Kids

Neapolitan Scented PlaydoughRecipe from Learning 4 Kids

Blackberry PlaydoughRecipefrom Learning 4 Kids

Free Printable Playdough Mats

Free Shapes Playdough Matsfrom Blessed Beyond a Doubt

Free Nativity Story Playdough Matsfrom Blessed Beyond a Doubt

Free St. Patricks Day Playdough Matsfrom Blessed Beyond a Doubt

Playdough Math Matsfrom Prekinders

Squirrel Playdough Matsfrom Prekinders

Cookie Playdough Matsfrom Prekinders

Farm Yard Playdough Matsfrom Prekinders

Gingerbread Playdough Matsfrom Prekinders

Funny Faces Playdough Matsfrom Sparkle Box

Birthday Cake Playdough Mats from Busy Bags

Flower Playdough Mats from Learn with Play at Home

How to Make Playdough, Tips, Tricks and playdough Recipes Galore (2024)

FAQs

What are the 4 ingredients in homemade playdough? ›

For the most part, homemade playdough recipes contain the same essential ingredients: flour, salt, cream of tartar, oil, water, and food coloring.

What is the secret recipe for play doh? ›

Ingredients for Super Soft Playdough
  1. 3/4 cup flour.
  2. 1/4 cup baby powder (this is the secret ingredient! If you don't like using baby powder, corn starch is a good alternative)
  3. 1/4 cup salt.
  4. 2 tsp cream of tartar.
  5. 1 tablespoon of baby oil.
  6. 3/4 cup of water.
  7. food coloring (I used gel food coloring)
Feb 20, 2023

How do you make cloud dough? ›

Add 1/2 cup of lotion to a bowl. Add 1-2 drops of the food coloring (if using concentrated gel, if using regular food coloring you'll need more drops to color) and mix. Mix the lotion and food coloring until combined. Add 1 cup of cornstarch and mix.

How do you make playdough Fluffy? ›

Fluffy Playdough
  1. 1 cup cheap hair conditioner.
  2. 2 cups cornflour.
  3. Food colouring and essential oil (optional)

How to make easy play dough? ›

Play Dough Recipe 5

2 cups water 2 cups flour 1 cup salt 2 tbs cooking oil 4 tsp cream of tartar Food coloring (optional) Add food coloring to water it you wish to color the dough. Mix and heat until ingredients form a ball. Knead until smooth and store in airtight container.

How to make fun play dough? ›

how to make the world's best homemade play-doh. You'll need 3 cups of white all-purpose flour, 2 tablespoons cream of tartar, 1 cup + 2 tablespoons of table salt, 3-4 tablespoons of any cooking oil (start with 3 and add more if necessary), 3 cups HOT water, and food coloring.

How do you make 5 minute playdough? ›

5-minute homemade playdough
  1. 1 cup All purpose flour.
  2. 1 cup water.
  3. 2 teaspoons cream of tartar.
  4. 1 Tablespoon vegetable oil.
  5. food coloring of your choice.
Jan 29, 2024

How do you make rainbow playdough? ›

Materials
  1. 2 1/2 cups water.
  2. 1 1/4 cups salt.
  3. 1 1/2 tbsp. cream of tartar.
  4. 5 tbsp. vegetable oil.
  5. 2 1/2 cups flour.
  6. Food coloring or liquid watercolors in red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. It's not necessary to have all of the colors. Use as few or as many colors as you would like.
Apr 12, 2019

How do you make old fashioned playdough? ›

ingredients
  1. 1 cup flour.
  2. 12 cup salt.
  3. 2 teaspoons cream of tartar.
  4. 1 cup water.
  5. 2 tablespoons cooking oil (vegetable, safflower, etc.)
  6. food coloring (optional)
  7. extract (Vanilla, Orange, Lemon, and Mint extract all make the play dough smell lovely. DO NOT USE CINNAMON, ) (optional)

What is the recipe for old school playdough? ›

Here's how to make it:
  1. Mix flour, salt, cream of tartar and vegetable oil. Add water and food coloring. Stir over low heat until dough forms.
  2. Cool, then knead until smooth. Give to your kids and let their imaginations run wild!

How do you make edible playdough with two ingredients? ›

Instructions
  1. Place the cornstarch in a large bowl.
  2. Mix in the hair conditioner with your hands–it will just start coming together and it will be pliable and very, very smooth. If desired, add a drop or two or food coloring.
  3. You may need to add more conditioner as you go. Use food coloring to color as desired.
Mar 6, 2015

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