Friday Fav: Homemade Play Dough

Olivia is having her 3rd birthday party tomorrow and the theme is Olivia the Pig.  If you have never heard of Olivia the Pig you need to check it out.  It is a TV show that comes on Nick Jr.  Olivia the Pig's favorite color is RED.  Anything she can have red, she does!  We are going to try to have as much red as possible at Olivia's birthday party.  So for the party favors at the birthday party I decided to make red play dough.

I went off the recipe on this blog, and this blog, and this video.  Most of the recipes I found called for Cream of Tarter.  I looked at Winn Dixie and Walmart and could not find it at either place!  After watching the video and reading the blog I scrolled down to read all of the comments.  Some people said that they replaced the Cream of Tarter with Lemon Juice and one person even said they added a little Vinegar to help slow bacteria growth.  I used these two suggestions but there were also others suggestions such as using Kool-aid packets to color and different extracts to scent.  I really wanted to add glitter but I couldn't find what I needed at Walmart.

These are the ingredients I ended up using:

2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups water
1 cup non-iodized salt
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 splash vinegar
1 splash vanilla extract
red food coloring

Put all of the ingredients into a medium or large sauce pan on the stove and used a whisk to mix them together.  Turn the stove on medium heat and use a wooden spoon to stir constantly.  After about 2 or 3 minutes the spoon will start to scrape some thickness up from the bottom of the pan.  Keep stirring making sure you scrape the bottom on the pan each time.

(The color looks a little different because the flash was used on some of the pics)

Your mixture will get thicker and thicker.  Just keep stirring.  Eventually all of the liquid will turn to a thick goo.  When this happens, take it off the stove and let cool for a couple of minute.

When the mixture cooled slightly scrapped it onto some plastic wrap onto the counter.  While it is still hot, fold and need it a few times.  This will help the texture become more like play dough.  I then separated it out into nine small balls, but you can keep it in one large lump.  You can also cut this recipe in half or wait until the end to add your color so you can have more variety in colors.

It was pretty easy and fun to make.  I took the balls and put them in zip lock baggies so I can give them away as party favors at Olivia's party.  Have fun with making this homemade play dough!