playdough | diy + natural dyes

by Dez

Making your own playdough is pretty simple. Its just five ingredients. You can customize by adding food colors, glitter and scents too.

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Making your own playdough is pretty simple. Its just five ingredients. You can customize by adding food colors, glitter and scents too.

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Making your own playdough is pretty simple. Its just five ingredients. You can customize by adding food colors, glitter and scents too.

playdough ingredients

1 cup flour

1 cup water

1/4 salt

1 tbsp vegetable oil

2 tsp cream of tartar

food coloring

glitter (optional)

scents or essential oils (optional)

making the playdough

It is pretty simple to make the playdough. You put all the ingredients into a pan and stir to combine. Then cook on med heat until it starts to thicken and for a dough like consistency. I make several batches at time for different colors.

Scoop dough onto a floured surface and let cool a little. Then knead into a smooth ball. Add flour if it is too sticky and wet your hands if it gets a bit dry.

essential oils in playdough

I like to add essential oils to my playdough. Essential oils give the dough a nice scent and adds antimicrobial properties. Use citrus like lemon, orange or lime for a clean and refreshing scent while lavender or chamomile for more of a calming effect.

coloring the playdough

I have used traditional food coloring liquid and gels and loved the colors. However if you do not have them you can use some regular household items to color the dough. Turmeric powder will make yellow, baking chocolate powder is brown and cinnamon is tan.

You can also infuse the cup of water with color before adding the other ingredients. Just simmer the water with an ingredient to get the color of choice. Beets will give red color and spinach will be green. You can experiment with different foods to see what color combinations you can make. Be sure to make sure you are still at 1 cup of water before adding the rest of the ingredients and cooking the playdough.

For this recipe I used dehydrated beets, spinach and carrots; turmeric and cinnamon powders. I really like the muted colors in this batch and they smell good. The kids love the cinnamon one the most.

storing the playdough

We store our playdough in a bigger plastic storage container. My kids were concerned about the colors mixing so they wrapped each color in baking parchment. Store it in a cool part of the house or room. I have had it mold before during humid summer months, so I recommend putting it in the refrigerator if it is warm in the area it is stored.

Making your own playdough is pretty simple. Its just five ingredients. You can customize by adding food colors, glitter and scents too.

And that is it for playdough. An easy recipe that has endless customization options and provides hours of fun. If you make this tag me on Instagram @dezthebakist I would love to see what others do with their playdough. 🖤 dez

If you like the playdough recipe try my Air Dry Clay for some more DIY fun!

Did you make this recipe? Tag me on Instagram @dezthebakist

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