Homemade Playdough

My two-year-old loves playdough, especially if I'm willing to roll it out for her to "make shapes" using cookie cutters I keep in a separate bag especially for playing with playdough.

I don't remember where we got this recipe for homemade playdough but it works as well as, or better, than the name brand stuff. Especially if you have a few tupperware containers or old Playdough canisters to put it in so that it doesn't dry out as quickly as in ziploc bags.

Best Playdough Recipe

1 cup flour

1/2 cup salt

1 cup water
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1/2 Tablespoon oil

Mix ingredients together.

Add food coloring. (I find it best to separate the batch into 2 or 3 portions and then color and cook each portion separately. That way you get more colors in smaller quantities. Dividing the recipe into thirds makes each color the perfect size to fit into old Playdough cannisters.)

Cook slowly, stirring constantly until it becomes so thick you can hardly stir. Keep stirring and turning the dough over and over until thoroughly heated.

On the counter knead warm dough for a few minutes to finish mixing it.

Important note: The cream of tartar is essential! I once made a batch using only half the amount because I was running out. It looked fine when I made it, but a few days later when we got it out to play with again, it was oozey, gooey, wet, and way too sticky to play with. I tried reheating it, but that didn't fix it. There's something about the cream of tartar that keeps it from doing that.

Wax Paper and Crayon Ornaments

I forgot to take pictures of these before they were mailed to Grandma, so use your imagination!

First, I had the kids shred their old broken crayons using crayon sharpeners (pencil sharpeners are generally too small for crayons).  They put the sharpenings on wax paper, in a thin layer.  Then I put another layer of wax paper over top and ironed them until the sharpenings melted and ran together.  (Be sure to put an old rag underneath the wax paper and another over top of it so that if any crayon gets out, it won't get on your iron or ironing boards.)

Then the kids used cookie cutters to trace Christmas shapes on the wax paper (markers work best for writing on it), and cut them out.

Joseph did find that you can use a pen to score white lines on the paper, unfortunately, it tends to make the layers of paper and crayon separate from each other, too.

Even Michelle made a couple - she didn't get the sharpener bit, but it still looked good just with stripes of crayon that she had drawn on (the wax paper will stick to itself when you iron it, so don't worry about having holes in the layer of crayon).