Mini-eco playdough recipe

Found the most brilliant site for creative and handmade crafts for the kids, we spent yesterday morning making our own playdough colours with flower petals, tumeric and my eleven year old's idea- GERKINS! didn't quite come out the shade of green we anticipated, and the smell sure clears the nostrils! We found a great list of plants that will make every colour and plan to keep experimenting, to see the extensive list from Pioneer Thinking, click here.

To make your own, visit Kate's beautiful website Mini-eco for the basic playdough recipe and natural dye options. My advice though, is to add twice as much oil so the playdough doesn't dry out quick, having spent over a decade making playdough in Early Childhood-if you want it to last, oil is the way to go. I love this idea for playdough because children learn about plant properties and don't need to rely on expensive dye or toxic paint. Kate is a web designer and a self-confessed 'visual junkie', you will fall in love with the photos of her creations from garlands, to beads and her latest post, the homemade guitar, SO COOL !!.



My daughters enjoyed the scavenger hunt for petals just as much as the finished product.



This one's a bit of a cheat on the recipe, with a splash of red colouring, as some petals she found did not make a deep colour. Rose and hydrangeas petals were the coolest giving us a deep red and light purple that kept turning blue, then pink, then purple, very exciting in the pot!