We are wrapping up our journey to outer space in the best way that we know how…with this Super Soft Galaxy Playdough! We hope that you’ve enjoyed all of our space-themed antics this month – we’ve certainly had a stellar time. And even though we’re a bit sad to end our space exploration, we are celebrating the fact that we will be able to play with this incredibly squishy and soft playdough for weeks to come! So…if you’re not ready for all of the space-themed fun to end either…go ahead and whip up a quick batch of this galactic playdough…and let the space party continue!
I found several galaxy playdough recipes on Pinterest…but I’ve honestly been dying to try this Soft Homemade Playdough Recipe (from The Sweeter Side of Mommyhood) for quite some time. I keep seeing rave reviews on Instagram…and I’m happy to report that this recipe definitely lives up to all of the hype! It’s silky smooth and delightfully squishy. And the best part? It won’t leave your hands feeling cakey and dry (like other homemade playdough) – thanks to one extra special ingredient. It’s coconut oil…shhh! π I also love that this is a no-cook playdough recipe…which makes it super quick and easy.
The only thing that we modified in Jacquie’s recipe was the coloring agent. Jacquie cleverly uses washable markers to color her playdough – which we will definitely be trying next time. But, for our galaxy playdough, we wanted our colors to be a bit more vibrant…so we used food coloring.
We also added some sparkle – because you can’t make galaxy playdough without some glitz and glimmer! Heck, you could even take it one step further and add some star confetti. We opted out of this idea, because our little nugget doesn’t like things poking her in the hands while she’s squeezing playdough between her fingers. But she thoroughly enjoyed creating all of the planets in the solar system…and making up her very own educational ditty to go along with them! π This girl finds a way to put a smile on my face on a daily basis!
Super Soft Galaxy Playdough
Ingredients/Supplies:
- A Double Batch of Soft Homemade Playdough, from The Sweeter Side of Mommyhood (you will need the following: flour, salt, cream of tartar, coconut oil, vegetable oil, and boiling water)
- Neon Food Coloring (we used pink, blue, and purple)
- Glitter (we used purple, silver, and teal)
- Latex Gloves (optional)
Instructions:
- Once you have your double batch of deliciously soft playdough, from Jacquie at The Sweeter Side of Mommyhood, you want to divide it into three equal parts.
- Grab one of the dough balls and push a hole down into the center (not all the way through). Add a few drops of pink neon food coloring. *Helpful Tip: If you do not want your hands covered in various colors of food coloring for the next couple of days…I highly recommend donning a pair of latex gloves for this part. π Knead the dough ball for several minutes…or until the entire ball of dough has turned a uniform pink. If you want the color to be darker, just add more food coloring and continue kneading.
- Repeat the above process with the remaining balls of dough – dying one blue, and the last one purple. *Helpful Tip: If you happen to get food coloring all over your kitchen counter (like I did), squirt some dish soap over the top of it (making sure to cover all of the food coloring spots) and let it sit for at least 10 minutes. Wipe it up with a paper towel. Ta Da!
- Now, it’s time to add some stellar sparkles! Grab your pink ball of playdough and your silver glitter. Push a hole down into the center (not all of the way through) and add a generous amount of glitter. Knead the glitter into the dough until it is fully incorporated. If you want more sparkle, just add some more glitter and continue kneading.
- Repeat the above process with the remaining balls of dough – adding the teal glitter to the blue dough, and the purple glitter to the purple dough.
- Feel free to play with these individual balls of soft and sparkly playdough…or…you can twist and swirl them together to make them look super cool! Just know that it’s only a matter of time before the mixed playdough turns into one final color. That being said…ours ended up turning the most beautiful, sparkly, galactic purple (as seen in the photo below).
When your playdough is ready…it’s time to play! Grab your dough, a rolling pin, some cookie cutters, and any other playdough tools that you have on-hand. Encourage your kiddos to explore and create some stellar space masterpieces!
We used various sizes of circular cookie cutters to create each of the eight planets. Then we cut out several stars…to keep the planets company. π We even busted out some letter stampers from our Hasbro Play-Doh Shape and Learn Letters and Language Set. Our little nugget proceeded to stamp various space-themed words into the dough (sun, stars, moon, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, etc.). This is such a fun and fantastic way to help your little ones learn various space-related words…while also developing and enhancing letter recognition, spelling, and motor skills!
Once your kiddos have tired of playing with this Super Soft Galaxy Playdough (if that ever happens) – you can use it to make these Playdough Stress-Ball Balloons – which your little kids (and big kids) are guaranteed to love!
