A week of Arts and Crafts: Homemade Silly Putty

We are going to focus on fun stuff you can do to keep your kids busy and avoid hearing the dreaded, "I'm Bored" this summer!  Towards the end of the week, the crafts will focus on 4th of July!  Bryn kicks it off with Homemade Silly Putty!

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Homemade Silly Putty (Flarp)

Last weekend we spent $7 on Gak.

For one container.

The commercial says Gak is back...

I say, "can you go away again?".

It may be cheaper elsewhere, but The Princess had a birthday coupon for Toys R Us, so that's where she found her much anticipated goop. She has asked for it for months, so she was pretty excited. We got home and quickly put newspaper and magazines down so that it wouldn't stick to the table.

So instead it stuck like wet dough to the paper, wasting a whole layer

...probably $1.17 worth.

Also, on the commercial the kids obviously are playing with at least 3 containers at a time. She wasn't impressed with the small amount she purchased. She hasn't played with it since.

I HATE wasting money.

After much glaring at the offensive tub of goo, I remembered a website that had a recipe for silly putty. When I had first visited the site I thought that it was less like silly putty and more like goop. If it was slimey and could also copy newspaper I knew she would love it. Also, she would think I was magical. That may be the best part about being a mom.

The process was very easy. We didn't have the ingredients on hand, but one visit to Walmart and $4.75 later, we were in business.

For the project you will need:

*Elmer's Glue-All
*Stay-Flo liquid starch
*Food coloring

- The website insists that it is muy importante (I'm totally bilingual) to use the Glue-All multi purpose glue and not Elmer's school glue.

- I used plastic disposable cups because I wasn't sure I would ever feel safe using a bowl or cup again that had held starch.

You will use equal parts glue and starch. Measure out your glue and then add food coloring to achieve desired color and stir.

Next add the starch and stir. It gets gooey pretty quickly, so I just stirred until I felt it was combined and then let it sit for several minutes to allow the starch to be absorbed.

All of the liquid will not be incorporated after the five minute wait time, so pour the remaking starch out and then pour out your mixture onto a paper towel.

Allow the mix to sit for another minute or two.

Next, pick up your goo and start rolling it and folding it around in your hands.

It's pretty slimy and quite gross, but also oddly satisfying. The Princess was happy to mix the first color...but "let" me do the second one. It will start to become more of a solid until you are left with a ball that holds its shape.

Now it's time to play.  This stuff was so cool!  It really was goopey but with qualities of silly putty, such as the all important ability to copy newspaper. Score! It does stick to magazines, but was fine on foil, wax paper and paper plates. Also it smells about a trazillion (that's a lot!) times better than the Gak.

Bryn