Christmas: The undisputed Holiday of the year! There is so much laughter, smiles, fun and frolic around. It is the time to celebrate. Whether with family, friends, or relatives, there is no other time like Christmas to have the most fun. It is like you have been given a license to have the most fun you possibly could have. Also it comes at the most amazing time of the year too, near the end.
So that since you have worked hard the whole year round, hopefully, you can finally let your hair down and relax and just enjoy yourself. Also, New Years Eve is just around the corner too! So it is like all the fun gets extended till the last date of the year when you can party it up hard. Now different people, of course have different ways and methods of celebrating. Some like to take the time to catch up on all their reading, some like to go out and celebrate with their friends, while some enjoy spending time with their family and kids. This is also the time when we get our house in pristine order and decorate it beautifully to get in the holiday spirit. Now while store bought decorations are fine to beautify your house with, there is always something special about doing do it yourself projects as it adds an extra special touch. And what better way to spend time with your family than doing some arts and crafts which requires team work and togetherness. It builds much needed sense of family and bonding, not to mention the laughter and fun that everyone has. So this do it yourself will help you accomplish just that. It is an added bonus if you have kids, because kids love working and building things with their hands.
But it is equally fun to play with play dough as adults. So today’ s do it yourself is on how to make your very own personalized play dough Christmas trees. There is one do it yourself on how you can make these play dough Christmas trees and also an additional tutorial on how to make your own play dough if you do not want to use store bought. So what are we waiting for? Let us get started!
Play dough Christmas Trees Materials and Instructions
To start of you could make your own play dough (tutorial of which is included in the end), however if you do not wish to go through that extra trouble, this do it yourself is equally possible with store bought Play dough of different colors, such as: green, gold, yellow, and anything else you wish to use for the tree ornaments.
Listed below are the supplies you will require to make these awesome little Play dough Christmas Trees:
–Playdough (either store bought or home made). Remember the play dough is recipe is included at the end of this post, so if you do wish to make your own, maybe go check that out first
–Christmas Sprinkles used for Cake decorating : It is a good idea to use edible sprinkles used for cake decorating as then your whole project becomes non toxic and that is what we want when there are kids around. It is safer and very kid friendly. So even if there is a off chance that the kids might put their hands in there mouths while doing this project at least it will be safe. But of course try and ensure that they do not by any means put their hands in their mouths.
–Mini star cookie cutter
–Christmas Tree Cookie Cutter
Instructions to make your very own Play dough Christmas Trees:
Using the green play dough and the Christmas Tree shaped cookie cutter, cut out several Christmas trees which you can then decorate. It would help if you flatten the play dough first using your hands or a rolling pin as this will make the cutting process easier.
Put all your different colored sprinkles in a separate bowl to make for easy selection
Next cut out small stars from the yellow or golden colored play dough and the star shaped cookie cutter to place on top of the tree. Because no tree is complete without a star on top of course
Now that you have your base to work with, decorate it any way you want, using the different colored sprinkles. Or you could even make different colored play dough tree ornaments.
That’s pretty much it! We are now done making all the play dough Christmas trees! Now hopefully your kids will not squish it and turn it into mush again, and you have something to decorate the house with. But to be honest when play dough is involved making a huge mush is inevitable. It is all in good fun thought, it is ultimately family time that is important!
Homemade natural Play dough
Play dough! Such an awesome thing you can use to create literally anything. No matter how simple or intricate. As long as you are on creative mode, anything is possible. It is also an amazing way to spend time with your kids, building things and painting them, and putting it on display.
However the problem with play dough is, kids tend to get very messy with it. They mix the pink with the orange, red, yellow, and blue, and eventually you just end up with a big lump of brown play dough which you can really use to make anything with. What eventually happens is the kids lose interest in it, and it is left somewhere in the corner of the house and totally forgotten about.
Another problem with play dough, other than it becoming brown from all the different colors mixing, is that it tends to dry very quickly. If left out in the open, which kids tend to do a lot, it hardens and dries and is not malleable at all. In essence it becomes useless and you would, unfortunately, eventually have to throw it away. Such a waste of money if you think about it.
For these reasons, many people opt to not buy play dough, and the kids then do not get to experience playing with it. But it really does seem like a waste, because we know that it will not last long, and will eventually get thrown away. It really is just money down the drain. But what if we could make it at home for much much cheaper? That way we do not need to spend so much money, so even if we do have to eventually throw it away, it will not feel that bad. The kids will also have an awesome time playing with it. On top of that you will know exactly what is going in to making the play dough so you know for sure that it is safe, because you will be the one who is providing the ingredients. It is win win situation really.
Now there are plenty of recipes on the web about the different ways one can make home made play dough. However some of the recipes mentioned online require ingredients that you would actually need to shop for, in essence they are not ingredients that you probably have lying around the house. Therefore this recipe stands out, as you probably have all the ingredients already at home. Just take them all out, gather you kids and get to work! It is basically dough and different food coloring, so you know that it is a 100% safe and natural.
Homemade Natural Play Dough Ingredients and Recipe
This homemade natural play dough recipe is easy, simple, and a great way to keep the kids engaged. They will enjoy making the play dough as well as playing with it afterwards. This recipe will give you a soft pliable play dough that they can definitely play with for long hours.
Ingredients
1 cup of flour (whatever you have on hand is fine)
¼ cup of salt
½ cup of water
3 to 5 drops of natural food coloring (ensure that you use a good brand)
Instructions
Mix the flour and the salt together.
Mix together a few drops of food coloring with ½ cup of warm water
Slowly pour the water in to the bowl with the flour mixture, make sure to stir as you pour to avoid forming lumps. Keep stirring until combined completely, knead using your hands hands until the water is completely absorbed by the flour. If the dough becomes too sticky, add some more flour until it is not sticky anymore.
All kids, no matter how old, love playing with play dough. Because what is not to love about it? Its mushy and fun, and you can get innovative as you want with it. Here are a few of the things you can give to your kids to use with their play dough:
Silverware
Rolling pins
Cookie cutters
Mason jar rings
Biscuit cutters
Maybe at some point of time, your kids will want to do something other than build things with play dough, and then you will have to come up with something else to hold their interest with. Just part of being a parent I guess. But in case that does happen, you will need to know how to store the play dough for future arts and crafts. Use any container that is airtight, like for example glassware with a lid, other plastic containers that you may have lying around, or even old Play Dough containers are an excellent idea for storage. So as long as you store the play dough in something air tight, and do not let it sit outside for too long in the open, your play dough should last you for several months, and sometimes even more.
The next time you’re have a day off or it is raining heavily outside, gather up your supplies, and spend the time with your children to make home made play dough! It is an awesome and amazing fun idea and an excellent do it yourself. They wont just have fun making play dough but also plenty of fun creating things with the play dough.
We really hope you enjoyed this post, it is quite do it yourself and a great way to spend time with your kid, especially if you make your own play dough and also make the Christmas trees from it for the Christmas decorations. Here is a little song about Christmas that you can teach your kids while you guys make the Christmas trees together. It will get them in the festive mood and they will also learn something new.
