Doing it yourself is best!

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My girls have a whole box full of Play-Doh accessories (courtesy of older relatives and Freegle) but these things haven’t been played with for a while. Then over the weekend the box came out but the Play-Doh was found to be rather tough and rubbery – too stiff to push through the various squeezers and shapers. All the Play-Doh and similar material we’ve had before has been shop-bought, often by grandparents, in a range of bright colours, although I’ve been taken aback at the price! But now we were inside due to the weather and had no intention of going to the shops, and anyway I didn’t want to buy it if it would only be played with occasionally and would probably go hard again before it got much use. So I got out a charity cookbook I was given years ago and found a couple of recipes for ‘playdough’. One called for powdered alum which I definitely didn’t have, but the second asked for cream of tartar which I have in the cupboard, so Little One and I decided to try making our own. It was very easy and the result was really soft and squigable (is that a real word?) and perfect for moulding into all sorts of shapes. Also I hate the smell of commercial ‘Play-doh’ but this didn’t have that. It has been played with every day since so it was well worth it, but although Little One agreed that it was good to play with, the best part, in her opinion, was making it in the first place. In the end, DIY toys are the best! If anyone else wants to try, here is the recipe: (courtesy of Rilla Nelson, Elim church, Rochester, MN) 2 cups flour 2 cups water 1 cup salt 3 teaspoons cream of tartar 2 tablespoons cooking oil food colouring Mix all together in a pan while heating, stir rapidly until all combined into a soft dough. Store in a sealed container.