Playdough Recipe #1

• 1 c Flour
• 1/2 c Salt
• 1 c Water
• 2 tsp. Cream of Tartar
• 1 tsp. Salad Oil
• Food Coloring

Mix together all ingredients and cook for 3 minutes over low heat. Stir well. Add food coloring. Store in a plastic container. Kids love it and it is easier to clean up.

Playdough Recipe #2

• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 cup salt
• 3 tbsp oil
• 1 package of Koolaid (for color and scent)
• 1/2 cup of water

This is a great recipe, keep it in the fridge and if it gets too sticky after a while you just add a bit of flour to it!  Keep it in an air tight container.

Playdough Recipe #3

• 1 C. Flour
• 1/2 C. Salt
• 2 Tbsps cream of tarter
• 2 Tsp cooking oil
• 1 C. water with food coloring

Combine ingredients and put on warm heat in saucepan.  Heat till thickens, remove and knead.

Playdough Recipe #4

We used to make this recipe as kids at my grandmother's house.  It can be used over and over and lasts for weeks.  A child just learning to model will appreciate how soft and cooperative it feels in her hands, especially when it's warm.

Play Clay

• 1    cup all-purpose flour
• 1    cup water
• 1/2 cup salt
• 1    teaspoon vegetable oil
• 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
• Food coloring (for vibrant colors, use cake decorating paste)

Mix the flour, water, salt, oil and cream of tartar in a saucepan.  Cook over medium heat until it holds together (keep mixing or it will stick to the bottom of the pan).  When the clay is cool enough to touch, knead it on a floured surface and add the food coloring.  Store in an airtight container such as a Ziploc baggie or old sour cream container.

Play Dough Recipe #5
Here is a fun craft for kids of all ages, including the big ones. You can make modeling dough in less than 15 minutes! The dough can be used for sculptures, magnets, making letters and numbers and imprinting hand prints. the possibilities are unlimited.

Here's what you need:

• 1/2 cup of salt
• 1 cup of flour,white or unbleached
• 1/2 cup of boiling water
• food coloring (optional)
• clear nail polish or vanish (optional)
• spoon
• bowl
• wax paper
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vegetable oil

Before you start:

• Make a place to work protect the table with a big sheet of paper.
• Read all the instructions
• Get everything you need to do the project.
• Think about the project. Imagine how it will look and what you will do with it.

Here's what you do

1. Combine flour and salt in a mixing bowl.
2. Add vegetable oil and boiling water.Stir with spoon until well blended and dough comes away from the sides of the bowl. When it is cool enough to handle, knead the dough with your hands until it is smooth. This should only take a minute or two.
3. If you want colors other than white, separate the dough into two or three balls. Flatten the ball and make a well in the center. Add 2 or more drops of food coloring to the well
   - 2 drops for a pastel color, more for deeper colors.Knead the dough until the color is even.
4. Store your finished modeling dough in an airtight bag or container. It will keep for weeks if stored in the refrigerator. Be sure to let it warm to room temperature before using.
5. Pinch off as much dough as you need to make your shape and leave the rest in the sealed container. Work the dough into any desired shape with your hands or just about any kitchen utensil. Making the letters of the alphabet can help your preschooler learn the letters along with numbers too. The more colorful, the more your little one will want to use them!
6. When you have finished molding your shape, put it on a piece of wax paper to dry. It should dry overnight to a hard finish. Pieces may be left plain or can be painted to add durability and color. Small pieces can be painted with nail polish, while you will want to use varnish or an acrylic sealer like Mod Podge for larger pieces

Rupp's Playdough

A playdough recipe, just in case you could all use another. See my interview on the Zone

• Mix:
  • 3 c. flour
  • 1 1/2 c. salt
  • 2 T. cream of tartar
• Add:
  • 6 T. vegetable oil
  • 3 c. water
  • food coloring (your pick)
• Mix thoroughly and cook over low heat until the dough is the consistency of mashed potatoes.
• Cool; play with; store in plastic bags.

Judith Gray's PlayDough Recipe

See FREE recipe for
Play Dough from "365 Days of Creative Play"

Chocolate Modeling Clay
It's edible, it's incredible
This craft is brought to us by Debby an active member of our online craft group, Craftzone. Chocolate Modeling Clay is very popular among craft groups and this is a well known recipe. Chocolate modeling clay is made by combining melted chocolate and light corn syrup. American pastry chefs invented the recipe and have been using this delicious edible clay to make garnishes and unique decorations. Here is their secret!

Ideas from you

Rough Surface Playdough
From: Honey4TheBears
I have a qeustion that maybe you can help me with. My daughter makes some dough ornaments with a recipe that I wll enclose in this e-mail. My question is if you know of a recipe in which when the ornaments are dried the texture of the surface will be evenly smooth.

This recipe she uses is supposed to be very smooth, at least when she is making them and it is wet it is, but once dried it gets very rough to the touch and kind of uneven. She waits until they dry and then she paints them and once the paint is really dry she gives them a glaze, they come out cute, but I would like to find out why the finished product is so uneven and rough to the touch. Once you apply the glaze it wont be rough but you can see that the dough was not smooth.

Here's the recipe:

Cornstarch Clay

• 1 cup cornstarch
• 2 cups salt
• 1 1/3 cups cold water

1. Put salt and 2/3 cup water into a pan and bring to a boil. Mix the cornstarch with 2/3 cup water and stir well.
2. Add this mixture to the first and knead into a clay. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator. While working with a project it is a good idea to pinch off only as much as you need and keep the rest in a closed bag because it tends to dry out fast.
3. Air dry your finished piece, checking it periodically. The thicker the piece the longer it will take to dry. You may paint your piece once it's dry.

Holiday Playdough
From: Dave Pickett
For the festive season I add glitter to make the playdough sparkle.
playdough recipes

Don't forget to cook your dough!
From: Jane
The playdough recipes were great, but for us amateurs you might want to mention that you have to cook it. All the other recipes say to cook it but that one doesn't so I assumed that you didn't need to and boy was I wrong. thanx jane
p.s. this is a great site

My favorite recipe
From: Susie
My favorite recipe for modeling clay is: 2 slices soft white bread,  crusts removed, torn into small pieces and 2 Tablespoons of white school  glue.  Drizzle the glue over the bread, mix with a fork until you have to get  your hands in there and knead.  As you roll it in your hands, the glue and  bread will mix and everything will start to stick to itself and come off your  hands. We added acrylic craft paints, a drop or two at a time, to color the  clay.  But, this can be painted after it has dried, usually a day or 2. This project has been used by Brownie and Junior Girl Scouts with  much success and enjoyment.  (Mostly for jewelry and beads.)

Peppermint extract for a nice scent
From: DMurphfam
Hi!   I love the playdough recipe, as did my 3 children.  As I was kneading the finished product I added a couple drops of  Peppermint extract for a nice scent!

Silly Putty
This week's Craft of the Week came from Tanya. This fun and versatile playdough has been around for decades and now you too can make it right in your own home. Store the Silly Putty in an air tight container, plastic bag, or plastic Easter egg (just like the original putty). The mixture will look like putty after it is kneaded, in fact, the more you knead the better the consistency will be.

Soapmaking For Fun & Profit
Making Candles
more Soapmaking books
more candlemaking books
more candles
FREE soapmaking recipes
FREE candlemaking recipes

more cookie cutters
Kitchen Outlet Store

Playdough Factoid
In 1956 Play-doh entered the market as a wallpaper cleaner. Non-toxic and less messy than regular modeling clay, it is soon recognized that the cleaner makes an excellent toy. The innovative product made Joe McVicker a millionaire before his twenty-seventh birthday. To date, 700 million pounds of Play-doh have been sold.

365 Days of Creative Play:
For Children 2 Yrs. & Up

by Gray Judith, Sheila Ellison    365 Days of Creative Play is a collection of indoor and outdoor activities that will encourage your child's imagination, growth and problem-solving skills.

Meet the Author - Rebecca Rupp
Getting Started on Home Learning:
How and Why to Teach Your Kids
by Rebecca Rupp, Ph.D.
See the cyber interview
and a FREE excerpt of this book hosted by Joe Spataro
She has homeschooled her three sons for more than ten years. She is the author of Getting Started on Home Learning,  The Complete Home Learning Sourcebook and How We Remember and Why We Forget. She writes a monthly column for Home Education Magazine and produces and hosts a local homeschool television program. She is an active participant here on the Zone on our discussion group offering very sage and complete answers. In the interview, we ask a few questions that will give you more insight into Rebecca, and in the excerpt she shares some of her experiences in the early homeschooling movement.

Familyfun's Parties
(Familyfun Series , No 3)
by Deanna F. Cook

also see:
Craft-of-the-Week
Party Ideas
It provides GREAT ideas for every aspect of the party, all inexpensively, and age-appropriate. It is a GREAT gift idea for moms with young children, but the ideas are very applicable to adult parties too. I will definitely do lots of these parties when my family gets together. Adults and children will enjoy these festive ideas. What a blast!