by Elise Marie

Created on: July 18, 2010   Last Updated: October 09, 2010

When we were little most of us loved playing with play dough. My grandmother made homemade play dough for us all the time instead of buying it. Now that I am older and watch and play with little kids from time to time I make homemade play dough as well, but I add colors and scents to the play dough to make it more enjoyable to play with and the children seem to love it.

The ingredients I use to make the play dough are 3 cups of flour, 1 ½ cups of water, 10 drops of food coloring of any color, 1 tablespoon of cream of tartar, and essential oils. All these ingredients can be found at your local grocery store if you do not have them on hand.

The way to make the homemade, colored, scented play dough is by placing the 3 cups of flour, 1 ½ cups of water, 10 drops of food coloring of any color, 1 tablespoon of cream of tartar, and essential oils into a medium sauce pan on top of the stove on low heat. Then begin to stir the ingredients together until you get a slightly sticky dough ball. After, remove the dough from the heat and dump it out onto a plastic cutting board, add a few tablespoons of flour over the top of it, and begin working the dough until it becomes smooth like a baby's bottom and less sticky. After you will have homemade, colored, scented play dough to play with with the children.

When you need to store the homemade play dough place it in an air tight container and place it into the refrigerator so it lasts a couple of months. Once the play dough becomes old and nasty just toss it out and make some more. If you accidentally end up leaving the play dough out it will become hard and you will have to toss it out as well and start over again.

If you want to make lavender play dough you will need 3 cups of flour, 1 ½ cups of water, 4 drops of purple food coloring, 1 tablespoon of cream of tartar, and 10 drops of lavender essential oil. Once you have these ingredients go ahead and make the play dough with the same steps I mentioned above in the last paragraph.

If you want to make vanilla play dough you will need 3 cups of flour, 1 ½ cups of water, 3 drops of yellow food coloring, 1 teaspoon of cream of tartar, and 1 tablespoon of vanilla extracts. This play dough smells just like vanilla sugar cookies and is edible.

When you are making scented play dough you can use any essential oils and flavored extracts that you want. The essential oils are not edible, but the food extracts are usually pretty safe to eat if the child decides he or she is going to take a nibble. You may also want to add a teaspoon or 2 of salt to help preserve the play dough and help it last even longer. I usually do not add the salt because I just don't feel it is needed.

When you are making scented play dough do not use essential oils that someone could be allergic to. Find out what essential oils are safe to use and which ones aren't. I usually stick to using lavender essential oils for a flowery play dough, peppermint for candy cane play dough, and fruity essential oils like grapefruit for a fruity scented play dough.

Anyways I hope this helps you all get creative with your homemade play dough in your kitchen. I also hope you have a blast playing with it with your children and friends. Enjoy!

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