Fun Art 101: Play-dough Perfection

“What insane person invented glitter play-dough?”
- Me

My older daughter was an angel for Halloween when she was five. Like most little girls, she couldn't wait to try on the glitter speckled nylon mesh wings as soon as they arrived in the mail. How cute. How sweet. How maddening when that glitter started cloning itself all over the house. From that point on, glitter was officially banned in our home. Even Christmas cards we received took a quick trip to the trash can if they were glitter laden. So you can imagine how thrilled I was when she received glitter play-dough as a birthday gift. (If you can't figure it out, check out the above quote.)

Commercial Play-dough possesses enough annoying qualities of its own without adding glitter to it. Besides the fact that its smell triggers my gag reflex, I also have a sneaking suspicion that it shares the clone ability DNA with glitter. But unlike glitter, play-dough was never banned because it has redeeming creative qualities. How cool are those fun factories? And how about discovering very interesting abstract art structures on the bottom of your shoe?

Here is a lovely home-made play-dough recipe you can make with your child. It has no smell and it doesn't seem to dry out when playing with it, leaving all those little chunks all over the place. Let your child help you mix it up. That's half the fun. Mix together 1 cup of flour, 1/3 cup of salt, 1 Tablespoon of vegetable oil, 2 teaspoons of white vinegar and 1/3 cup of water. For color in your dough, add about 1 tablespoon of food color to the water before you add the water to the other ingredients. You can add more water if needed. Then knead it.(pun intended) Store the dough in an airtight container. You can add more water later if the dough dries out.