This was an easy idea-Play Clay made with cornstarch. It felt similiar to homemade playdough but not as sticky. It did have a bit of a scent that my 3 year old kept saying, “That smells bad.” But it didn’t keep her from playing with it.
I love the color we chose to add-a greenish-blue
And because I am a sucker for all things bright and sparkley
We used glitter, foil, metallic pipe cleaners and brightly colored mylar and craft sticks.
Ginger decided to wrap her “ski race” in foil and let it dry.
Incase you don’t have the recipe on the back of your cornstarch: I doubled this recipe and had to fiddle a bit to get it to the right consistency
1 cup salt
1/3 cup water
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup cold water
food coloring
mix salt and 1/3 cup water over med heat stirring occasionally-3 to 4 minutes
remove from heat; add cornstarch and 1/4 cup of water add food coloring. Mix. It will thicken as it cools. (I had to add more cornstarch at this point and put back on stove-it was not thickening) knead on cornstarch dusted surface. Be carful it will be HOT. Keep adding cornstarch till no longer sticky. Store in fridge in a sealed container with a damp sponge.
Hey look! My kids are in the circus!!
This afternoon my kids had 2 performances at Gingers preschool. Then Molly had to go to her clay class. Whew!
OK I finished 6 minutes shy of Wednesday-so it really was a two for Tuesday!!
Hi Kristen,
Look, I found you
!
It was great to see the pictures of the “circus”! The performers did a great job!
Kristen! You’re forgetting to mark your categories! I linked you up today!
Hi – I found you through Dawn’s blog, and I’m so glad I did. I’m not very creative when it comes to craft stuff, but my almost-4-year-old loves to do anything that resembles building or creating. I am definitely going to try the play clay with all the “accessories” you mentioned. See, this is how NOT creative I am – it never occurred to me that we could COLOR the craft sticks! So we’ve just been using them in their plain tan color. Just coloring the craft sticks will be a blast for my little guy. I’m looking forward to reading further arts and crafts ideas.
This is a timely post – I was just thinking about making some homemade playdough. Does this stuff need to be used right away or can it be stored? Do you have a recipe for homemade playdough?
I came over from Dawn/thiswoman’s work, btw. I’m pretty sure we met at her Hanukkah party!
Yay–a gluten-free playdoh. I had forgotten this recipe, thanks! And welcome to the blog-o-sphere.
I think, for the benefit of those of us for whom crafting is painful, you should rate the crafts on a scale of 1-5, with 1 being “so easy you’ll only snap at your kids once or twice,” and 5 being “do not attempt without sedatives and/or various other chemical soothers.”
And I like your pretty pictures.
Hi,
I found you through Dawn’s blog too.
I’ll look forward to your ideas!
Hi Kristen, just popped over from This Woman’s Work.
I’m wondering if your corn starch is our (in Australia) corn flour – the stuff you use to thicken sauces?
Hi
I, too, found you from Dawn’s blog. We make playdough fairly often, and I usually add scented oils (lavender, citrus, whatever) to it so that it smells good. The lavender in particular is really calming, which when combined with the stress-reducer that is playdough, helps my high-strung daughter.
Welcome to the blogging world
This was an easy idea-Play Clay made with cornstarch.Be carful it will be HOT. Keep adding cornstarch till no longer sticky. Store in fridge in a sealed container with a damp sponge.