So... I have been lacking inspiration for posts, and have been busy with life, but I do really want to get back into blogging. The best way I can think is to at least make a post when I am hit by motivation - however few and far between they are (maybe they will slowly start to become frequent again).
I have been wanting to do a project with/for the kids and play dough has been in the back of my head for awhile. One day I actually sat down and search the internet to find a recipe that was easy but would still yield some good play dough. I wanted a no-bake/no-stove-top recipe, as well as a recipe that did not require cream of tartar because here in Bulgaria I have not been able to find it (at least in the shops in the town I live in).
I found this helpful YouTube
video and began by following it. You need separate bowls of water plus the added food coloring and oil, to which you add the flour and salt mix. I had four bowls, two with regular food coloring and two with unconventional attempts at dying ingredients from my kitchen, one I wanted to see if I could get a color from a very purple fruit tea, and another one I added an effervescent magnesium tablet that I had, that produces a very pink color, I wanted to see if it would transfer the color to the play dough.
I began working the dough of the first bowl (the magnesium experiment) and it turned out soft and very workable and I didn't have to knead it for very long at all (though the pink did not hold up and it turned out to be just white play dough, but that was fine). Next I turned to the tea experiment and right away it needed more water while I was kneading and I felt the minutes ticking by as I was working the dough, after a good while of kneading and collecting the falling scrapes and kneading some more I got it to stick together as good as I could but it was not a very good play dough consistency in my opinion and was rather hard to work with. I summed it up to a tea fail, thinking maybe the tea had a drying effect......or something(?). Picked up the next bowl containing the blue dye and began the process of mixing then kneading, and had the same hardships as the tea dough (I added both a bit more water and oil trying to get the same consistency and softness I had in the first play dough ball). The blue one did turn out better then the tea one, but still not as good as the first. SO I decided to grab a magnesium tablet and dissolve it in the green dyed water/oil that was my final bowl to mix up, just to see if that was what made the difference. After it was completely dissolved I mixed it and kneaded it AND! I had the very same results as the first batch!
I have no clue why magnesium would make a softer, better play dough (for a no-cook method), but it did!
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| The magnesium tablets I used. |
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| I did get one shot of the dissolving table, before forgetting my camera again. |
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I redid two whole new batches for the dud colors - blue dye, and the tea experiment - with the added magnesium, and they both turned out great as well! The tea one yeilded a color that was not as purple as I was expecting (I used about 4 tea bags to the 1/4 cup of water) but it made a nice greyish-purple none-the-less.
Now the unfortunate thing is I do not have step by step pictures :( I was meaning to take pictures through the whole making-of process, but I got so wrapped up in making play dough and watching the kids having fun with the finished ones I completely forgot I had wanted to take pictures. Sorry! I did take one or two pictures though, not very informative, but at least you can see that the kids enjoyed it! If I make more I will try and remember to have my camera ready at each step.
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| All the good play dough balls. |
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| The two 'duds' harder and much more 'flaky' or crumby. |
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| Even Daddy was getting into the play dough action! |
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| They seem to like the blue one! |
I have been keeping it in the refrigerator, wrapped in cellophane when it is not being used, and let it sit out to get as close to room temperature before being played with - however seeing it in plain site on the table and waiting to play with it is a hard thing for toddlers. The kids have been asking to play with play dough now multiple times every day! As soon as I see it beginning to dry out I will try restoring it as I would with store bought play dough, kneading it with a little bit of water. I have noticed if the kids play with one color for more then an hour it starts to get a little bit dry, and so far squishing it all together and wrapping it in cellophane has halted any drying and the next time they use it, it is back to normal.
