How To Make Play Dough

Learn how to make play dough it only takes a minute and keeps the kids happy for hours. No cooking required and not very messy either as all the mixing is contained in one bowl.

Using basic ingredients that you probably already have in your cupboard, it's cheap to make and lasts just as long as the ready made stuff you can buy in the shops.

Mia’s Craft Ideas Guide

Difficulty: Medium Adult supervision: Help may be needed even for older children

Help will be required in the making of the play dough as the recipe uses boiling water.

Although the homemade play dough recipe is non toxic it does have a lot of salt in it so I would make sure it is not eaten.

Materials and Equipment

• Bowl for mixing
• A spoon or mixing knife
• 1 cup of Plain flour, a little more may be needed
• 1/2 a cup of salt
• 1 tablespoon of baking powder or cream of tartar
• 1 tablespoon of oil, baby oil can be used to give a nice smell
• 1 tablespoon of powder paint or a few drops of food coloring
• 1 cup of boiling water
• Cling film or air tight container for storage
  
  

Mia’s Top Tip

If you are using food coloring you will need quite a lot to get bright colors. I found powder paints will give great colors with just a tablespoon of paint. You may find the mix is quite sticky once you start mixing it all together, if this is the case just add more flour until it starts to stick together.

How To Make Play Dough Instructions

Measure out your flour, start with one cup though it's likely you will need to add more later.

Add the salt.

Add the baking powder or cream of tartar.

Add powder paint or food coloring.

Add the baby oil or cooking oil to the bowl.

Add a cup of boiling water.

Mix everything together, use a mixing knife or spoon until the mixture has cooled down slightly.

Keep mixing until it all together until it starts to form a ball. Once it cooled a bit it is easier to do this with your fingers. You may need to add more flour if it is too sticky.

Continue to knead and mix until the texture is like that of play dough.

Mia’s Craft Ideas

Your homemade play dough should keep quite well wrapped in cling film or placed in an airtight container. Store in the fridge or cool place to prolong it's shelf life.

What would you like to do now?

Return to top of how to make play dough where you can choose one of Mia’s craft ideas from the navigation bar on the left.

Go to Kids Craft Ideas where you will find more great craft ideas for kids.

Visit Mia’s Craft Ideas home page to find out more about our website and Mia’s free craft ideas.