Make some jet black, sparkly play dough for space, robot, or moon related imaginary play times!
How cool is this play dough?! We have made it for a friend’s birthday party today and I’m loving the silver sparkles combined with the jet black dough. It would be fabulous for using during a topic about space or a science investigation about rocks and minerals. I thought exploring it using metallic objects like these pictured would go well with the reflective nature of it too! How much fun would it be to press the dough through a garlic press to make black sparkle string?! I think we need to make some for ourselves too!
Here’s the recipe (which takes all of 4 minutes!):
* 2 cups of flour
* 1/2 cup of salt
* 1.5 cups of boiling water (important that it is straight from kettle)
* 2 tbsp oil
* 2 tbsp cream of tartar (or a squeeze of lemon juice)
* a few drops of glycerine to add extra shine and stretch (this is my own special ingredient!)
* black food colouring or 1 tbsp of black powder paint
* silver glitter
Method:
Mix it all together in a bowl until it starts to come together. Then knead it for a few minutes and add the colouring and glitter. It will be very hot at first! It comes together beautifully and will last for months in a zip-loc bag in the cupboard. It will last a good few months before drying out.
See my Play Dough Recipes tab (under the title at the top of the page) for MANY ideas of wonderful things to do with play dough!
I’m going to do a space themed month with my son soon. This will be perfect! Thank you for sharing.
Lovely Lovely Lovely!!! Your thumbnail drew me in right away!!!! It looks like space or an asteroid or something like that!
Super cool! I just have to find black food coloring now!
This is so unique! Making space elements from this would be so much fun and imaginative!
I am not sure if I can find black food colouring here… 🙁
now why have i not seen black play dough before? this is so clever! i think i’ll have to make up a batch for halloween. it would be fun for a crafty adult party too.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen black food coloring. Very cool concept. I really want black play dough!
I made this with red/blue/green glitter for last years Bonfire Night… it looked like fireworks when it was rolled out! Black food colouring is easy to find in the shops, you need quite a bit of it though, otherwise it turns out grey.
This looks fantastic, I’ve got the black food colouring, just need some more silver glitter and I can give it a try. We tried your fab chocolate box playdough idea today It was definitely a hit, thank you!
Lucy that sounds wonderful! There’s something about adding glitter to dough that just brings it to life a bit! And I agree about needing quite a lot of colouring. I find that with all colours- very pastel shades unless you use half a bottle!
Cathy, thanks so much for the feedback about the chocolate dough! So nice to hear when someone has tried and enjoyed something 🙂
Anna this looks sooo inviting. My play dough recipes never ever work. I am definitely play dough challenged. Maybe I should try it again 🙂
P.S Will you come and link up your play dough recipes in the My Little Artist group? Shannon, the owner of the group, is trying to get a really great collection of recipes and ideas together.
Now that will be one for the boys! What amazing stuff (technical term!)I do hope some teachers take this up now that you have linked it on the RC!Thank you!
Julia
Very cool play dough. I know my son will LOVE this!
Oh my – HOW COOL! This will also be great for the older kids who think they are “too old” for playdough but love it really… love the idea of making it part of a science project!!
Thank you for sharing on Kids Crafts Party!
Maggy
That is the coolest playdoh I’ve ever seen! I might just have to make some more homemade playdoh soon just to try it out!
I made this today using the Wilton Icing Dye in Black. It still required a lot! (But less than regular food dye)
We used multicolour glitter and still looked great. Thanks for the great idea!
Am trying to make black playdough & found your post … just starting mixing but my dough is dark green & I used a lot of the wilton black coloing! How did you make yours so black?? HELP!
I used the Wilton and the green eventually gets darker. I ended up using the entire jar. (1 oz) it is pretty black. But my hands are now red and so is the counter. Bleach cleaned up our counter, I just have to keep an eye on it with the kids and keep it on a mat. Otherwise I love the idea of the black. Hope my boys like it.
Ahh Laura, I don’t know how to help, sorry!! I used Silver Spoon colouring (a UK brand) and probably did need 1/3rd of a small bottle. I saw someone else try out my dough and she had to use half! I am not familiar with Wilton but it sounds like it has a greenish dye for its base. If in doubt add more and more, but you may need to compensate with more flour. Hope it works!
I love all your play dough recipes!
This is the best playdough ever! 🙂
I use kool-aid in mine to make it smell yummy! just a mommy tip 🙂
black paint works well, too: either tempera powder or watercolour liquid paint.
Can you use tempera (water base) paint. Regular paint we have on hand and use in our preschool. Teri
I am about to make a second batch of this to give to my little boy’s friend’s birthday, after it was a HUGE success at his own in the summer (which still hasn’t dried out!). The best home made play dough ever, in my opinion;-)
We made black sparkly dough using natural black food colouring and edible glitter, and added strawberry flavouring to make it smell yummy too (but safe if eaten by younger siblings).
PS/ I agree, the Silver Spoon liquid food colouring that comes in bottles is brilliant for this. As its a natural dye, you get a proper black (grey if you don’t use s much) rather than khaki or green.
…and don CGI style gloves when making this to avoid stained hands. But once mixed and kneaded well, the colour didn’t transfer at all.
Just done this, could only find black paste food colouring & used a whole pot! It is lovely but not as shiny as yours despite the glycerine.