Homemade Kool Aid Play Doh

Homemade Kool Aid Play Doh

We officially have a new baby at our house and it's been a bitterly cold winter so we've been spending a lot of time inside.  One of my favorite things to do with the kids lately is to make home made play doh with the bigger kids so I can also spend time with the newest member of our family.  The kids enjoy making it almost as much as they like playing with it & only costs about $1-$1.50 a batch so we have made several colors/flavors!

Here is a wonderful recipe I got from a fellow mom and friend:

 2.5 cups of flour (probably closer to 3 or even 3.5)
1/2 cup salt
1 tablespoon Alum
3 tablespoons cooking oil
2 cups boiling water
packet of Kool Aid (or food coloring)

Combine flour, salt & alum. Add oil & Kool Aid to boiling water and stir, then pour over flour mixture and mix.
I used an electric mixer but you can also stir with a spoon and then knead with hands. If mixture is sticky, add small amounts of flour until you can use a cookie cutter and it comes out clean. I added about 1/2 cup of flour and it seemed to form a nice ball and sort of fell off the mixer attachment.
One thing I love about this mixture is that if the play doh gets a little dried out, you can just add a little water and knead it with your hands and it springs right back.  I have been storing it in gallon zip bags and they work great.

I am such a fan of this play doh that I am even going to make a variety of colors/flavors and divide them to use as party favors for my son's birthday with preschool friends.

Here's a link to the Kool Aid website with an alternate recipe:
https://fb.kraftapps.com/koolaidshake/Content/pdfs/Kool-Aid-Play-Dough.pdf
This recipe has more intensely colored play doh but makes about 1/3 of the recipe I posted.  I have been wanting to try adding two packets of Kool Aid to my friend's recipe for more intense color but haven't tried it yet.

Color Guide:
Red - Cherry, Fruit Punch
Pink - Pink Lemonade
Orange - Orange
Yellow - Lemonade
Green - Lemon Lime
Pale Green - Green Apple
Light Mint Green - Blue Raspberry Lemonade
Blue - Mixed Berry
Purple - Grape

Barbie bedding

After a fairly extensive online search for Barbie (or similar sized doll) bedding, I found very little that I liked and thought I'd come up with my own instructions for fairly easy Barbie (or Monster High girls, Equestria Girls, Elsa, Anna, etc) bedding.

You will need:

2 pieces of coordinating (or same) fabric measuring 11" x 6" (for comforter)
2 pieces of coordinating (or same) fabric measuring 3.5" x 6" (for pillow)
a piece of some sort of batting (I used an old towel) measuring 11" x 6"
some poly-fil stuffing for the pillow
a needle
thread
scissors
a sewing machine is optional but it does make things go much faster

For the pillow:

Need 2 pieces of fabric measuring 3.5" x 6" each

Stack rectangles with right sides of fabric facing each other

Pin and sew 1/4" from edges, leaving 1-1.5" open so you will be able to turn fabric inside out

Carefully cut corners of rectangle, this will help corners look nicer

Turn pillow inside out, can poke corners out with a stuffing tool, pencil, or chopsticks

Place stuffing in corners first, fill pillow to desired firmness

Using a needle and thread, sew the pillow shut