This very easy homemade glitter playdough is so fun to make! It makes great party favors, gifts, stocking stuffers (Christmas is coming so soon!), or just a fun sensory activity to make for your kids.
My girls love glitter. What can I say? It IS kind of pretty. So when we were talking about party favors for their birthday parties (Elena had a Frozen themed birthday party, and Aria had a Sleeping Beauty party soon after), glitter came into picture pretty quickly. I was looking for something cheap to make for a crowd, they were looking for something pretty, and it combined into homemade glitter playdough!
Our first batch of playdough was a DISASTER (for budget’s sake, we went with a non-gluten-free recipe, so I was trying out a new one). But then I got a good recipe, and was soon kneading glitter into small mountains of playdough, with giggly girls helping me out. Both girls loved handing out their party favors to their friends – I think that there was an element of pride in being able to give something that they had had a part in making themselves.
Plus, the leftovers have been well used and enjoyed here at home!
What you need
Recipe:
You can use my gluten-free playdough recipe here. This is great for gluten sensitive children, especially those very sensitive. Don’t double the recipe, as it seems to throw things off.
Or, use this quick no-cook recipe using regular flour and ingredients (this is what we did for the party). Note: I never used quite all of the water called for when making this recipe.
To color the playdough:
In this post I share some different ideas for coloring your playdough naturally (tea for pink, chlorophyll for green, turmeric for yellow, etc.) For our “Frozen” themed playdough, we kept it white and added light blue glitter. For our “Sleeping Beauty” themed playdough, we made it pink, and added silver glitter. You can also use (Amazon affiliate links below) natural food dye. But be careful! Sometimes the natural dyes react to the cream of tarter in the playdough, and it turns into a different color. For example, we used a blue natural food dye to make the pink playdough shown here!
For glitter:
We used a blue like this one for the “Frozen” playdough, which was fun. For the Sleeping Beauty themed playdough I used a multi-color glitter. I kneaded the glitter in once the playdough had cooled enough to handle easily.
For packaging:
My favorite idea was to use small jars for packaging the playdough. So classy (and plastic-free!). However, because we also include siblings of friends at our parties, we ended up with quite the crowd. To keep it cost effective, we used these 4 ounce food containers, which worked great. To tie it together with the theme, we placed small snowflakes on the top of the Frozen playdoughs, and little hearts on the Sleeping Beauty playdough. If you are making a batch just for your family, placing it in any air tight container works great (including a quart sized mason jar).
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Thank you so much for this idea! I am compiling a list of crafts to make with my great nieces and nephew to give at Christmas and I think this one is a winner! I have two 3 years old nieces who I think will love this!
And congratulations on your pregnancy.
Jennifer,
First, thanks for the congrats! And I bet your nieces would love glitter playdough! They are at that perfect age for it. You sound like a great aunt. 🙂
That is such a lovely idea. We make playdough at home but I have never tried embellishing it, or using homemade colours. Will definitely be trying the tea pink. Looks like your little girl had a gorgeous birthday party!
Paula,
Dyeing the playdoughs has been so much fun for us! For our Frozen party, a bunch of friends lent us lights and snowflake decor, so our little living room was really decked out! So much fun. 🙂