Keeping the Play Dough Pretty

I love fresh pack of play dough. The softness, the scent, the richness of the color, the squishiness as you mold it....in fact, I would venture to say that a fresh tub of play dough is one of my little "mom luxuries."

But do you know what I hate about play dough? After pulling out several different colors for the kids to play with, somehow all of them end up smashed together. The truly bizarre thing is that no matter what colors are mixed, the result is always a weird yellowish-brown color! Very unattractive, and hardly a good motivation to pull it out and play with it!

It is for this reason that I have invented a new way to keep the play dough pretty, and your kids will still be thrilled with the variety!

When buying (or making) play dough, try making several colors in the same "family." For example, in our bucket right now my children have red, blue, light purple, deep purple, and white. Even after playing with each color, smashing little bits of one into the other, and sloppy clean up, the result is a nice lavender--which is still pretty enough to play with another day!

Below are two more color family combinations for your squishing pleasure:

Yellow, red, orange and white (smashed together makes peach)

Blue, green, yellow, and white (makes jade)

As a bonus, you can always make the dough "magic." The kids can't get enough of this one, and it's super easy to do. Take white play dough that you make or buy, and poke a little dent in it with your finger. In the dent, place about 5 drops of liquid food coloring, then ease the dough over the dent and roll around--gently--until it's smooth. Give the children the dough, and as they begin to knead it, it will "magically" become a different color! Truly thrilling if you're in preschool!


...here's to pretty play dough!