Easy Non-Toxic Playdough Recipe

My kids are in love with everything playdough right now. With Easter around the corner, I wanted to create an easy recipe for a non-toxic playdough that I could put into their Easter Baskets! I think they will love all of the fun colors that I was able to create with some simple vegetables and spices that I had on hand.

Natural Dye

1 1/2 c of water per color

Vegetable or fruit: 1 cup

Spice ingredients: 1 tbsp

Baking Soda

Homemade Playdough Recipe

1 cup flour

1 cup liquid (water or homemade vegetable dye shown below)- see details below

2 tsps cream of tartar

1/2 cup salt

1 tbsp olive or coconut oil

Instructions for the Natural Dye

Grab a few saucepans, and set them on the stove. Fill each pan with 1 1/2 cups of water. Next is the fun part! Add your favorite vegetables, fruits, or spices to the water! For veggies or fruit, add in 1 cup. For spices, add in a tbsp. Here are some ideas below for colors! The ones with asterisk are ones that I made for this blog post.

• Blue*– cabbage (after it has cooled, add in a few tsps of baking soda to turn it blue!)
• Purple*– blueberries and elderberries, you can also do just plain red cabbage
• Tan/Light Yellow- Dandelions (do 1 cup)
• Ecru*– Spinach
• Yellow*– Tumeric Powder
• Pale Pink- Paprika
• Teal- Spirulina Powder
• Brown- Coffee Beans (maybe about a 1/2c-cup)
• Pink- Beets

Turn the heat to high, let it start to boil, and then simmer on a lower heat for 20 minutes. After it is finished, strain each dye into separate mason jars and let cool.

Instructions for Non-Toxic Playdough

First, you will want to combine the flour, salt, and cream of tartar into a bowl. The next few steps depend on how many colors you want to make your non-toxic playdough! The combined dry mixture will be about 1 and a half cups. You will want to divide that number into however many colors you want to create. For me, I wanted four different colors, so that equaled about 1/3c of the flour mixture per batch. The flour mix and liquid are a 1:1 ratio, so you will use as much liquid as flour for each batch. If you are following what I did for this recipe, your first batch out of four, you will use 1/3c of the flour mixture and 1/3 cup of your natural dye that you created. Stir this over medium/low heat until it starts to form a clump.

Transfer the playdough to a sheet of wax paper to cool, and start your next batch for a different color! Repeat this as many times as you have ingredients for (for me it was 4 times), and then let them cool.

Add In Essential Oils

Take each ball and gently knead with your hand for a few minutes. Now is the time to add in some essential oils if you want to! I use both Doterra and Young Living oils, but whatever you have on hand is great. I did two drops per ball and gently kneaded it in, they smelled so good and fresh. Much different than a store bought playdough. For the colors I did, I picked Bergamot, Balance, Lemon, and Lavender.

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This non-toxic playdough stores great in an airtight container, and can be used over and over by your kids. The best part is, it is all handmade by you! Your kids will absolutely love this, and will get so many hours of play out of this.

Also! Here is a link for some really cute eco-friendly playdough cutters and our favorite playdough tools set. We have the transportation set and LOVE it. My son is obsessed with vehicles and dinos right now, so these were perfect. Here is another set they have for dinosaurs! I will be getting these for his birthday. These woodland animal ones are super cute too. Ok- I’m done, promise! Just had to share some of our favorite tools.

I want to hear about what combinations you tried! Or, maybe you have a different ingredient that you used to make a color, either way, comment below! I would love to hear about how this activity went for you.