Parentune DIY: 3D craft with homemade dough

My daughter Kiki loves to play with play dough! Her all-time favourite pastime is to make different shapes and animal figures with it. I love her creativity; however I don't feel at ease when the dough goes under her nails or in her mouth. Most play dough is non-toxic these days, but not chemical free. So we decided to make our own dough and play with it. Find out how you too can make play dough at home…

Play dough ingredients

These are the ingredients to make play dough of one colour.

* Flour (Maida) - 100 grams

* Oil- 1/4 cup

* Salt- 1 tbsp.

* Warm water- enough to knead the dough

* Food colour- 3-4 drops (depending on the intensity of colour)

How to make homemade play dough

Step 1- Mix the flour and salt in a mixing bowl.

Step 2- Add oil to this mixture and rub evenly.

Step 3- Add food colour to the warm water and use this water to knead the dough.

By using various food colours, you can make as many colours as you wish.

An exciting variation - making a collage

We make this play dough at home quite often. For a little variation, we added baking powder (1/2 tsp) to our dough this time. Why? Read on...

Make play dough animal figures by moulding your homemade play dough or use cookie cutters, and bake them in the oven at 160 C for 5 mins. Once cool, paste these on a cardboard sheet and paint on a jungle scene, using your play dough animal shapes. We had fun creating our 3 D play dough animals and forest together!

Pick your favourite scenery, be it the night sky, the ocean world or just anything and you and your child can spend 4-5 hours having creative fun with safe, homemade play dough!

Did you find Sumitra’s recipe for DIY play dough useful? Do you make any of your child’s playthings at home? Do share your experiences and learnings with us in the comments section below. We love hearing from you!