Plastic Dough Beads

I wanted to do a fun craft yesterday with my girls. I was looking for something a bit easier, but once I read about Plastic Dough in The Ultimate Book of Kid Concoctions, I wanted to give it a shot.

This is a super fun play dough with a plasticy consistency.

Plastic Dough

4-6 drops of foo coloring
1/4 cup white glue
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup water

1. Mix white glue, water and food coloring together in a small baggie until combined (the original recipe calls for a bowl...but...hmmmm...maybe not!)

2. Combine flour and cornstarch in a bowl.

3. Add the flour/cornstarch mixture to the water/glue mixture. Mix until a stiff dough is formed.

4. Remove dough from the bowl and knead on a floured surface for 2-3 minutes.

5. Mold plastic dough on a surface covered with wax paper. Drying time will vary depending on the size of your creation.

First we combined the glue, water and food coloring in a plastic bag with a plastic spoon. The less things I have to wash after this sticky messy craft, the better!

The girls had fun mixing their brews together. 

Next we stirred the cornstarch and flour together. 

And then added this mixture into the baggie with the glue goop. 

Time for more stirring. We stirred it until it got too stiff. 

Then came the fun part...

We closed the bags and the girls squished and squeezed the dough until it was good and combined. You have to watch that ziplock closure though! We had them pop open. 

Now don't let this next picture scare you away from this craft! We had to inside out the bag to get the sticky mess out. I put the dough on a cutting board covered with flour and then got to kneading it. 

Um...yeah, it's a bit messy! But, oh well. It's all part of the fun, right?

Ha! I love Molly's face as she tries to get her fingers unstuck from the dough!

Alright, so finally you get Plastic Dough! Now, keep in mind, this is still a kind of sticky dough. I found if you got it to the point where it wasn't sticky anymore, that it looked too dry. I think it needs to retain a bit of it's stickiness. But if you just don't sink your hands into it and squish it, you'll be fine. 

We rolled the dough into small balls and then used a plastic needle to make holes in it for beads. 

We took a wire hanger, cut it open and used it to string the beads on so they could dry. 

It took until this morning for them to dry completely. Then before breakfast Zoe strung them onto elastic thread. I added a pink ribbon for the fun of it. 

And check out those fish! You can roll this dough out really thin and cut shapes out with cookie cutters. So fun! 

Linked up here...

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