4 Ingredient Play-Dough! (Easy & No-Bake!)

4I always say that it’s completely impossible to have a happy baby and a clean house! Trust me, I’m really trying to work on the balance and all, and I know that some moms really do have “it all together”… just not me, yet! Still working on it!

Sometimes my daughter and I role with the motto “Messy hair, and we don’t care!”, and well, we just decide to have fun all day long! So, last week we decided to start out by making play-dough first thing in the morning. Honestly, the making of this play-dough was actually a necessity! You know how sometimes the play-dough gets left out overnight, and it gets all hard and stuff?! [Psst! Do your kids love play-dough?! Check out some of these great play-doe accessories!]

Here are some of the great reasons why I LOVE this play-dough recipe:

  1. If it accidentally gets left out, this play-dough doesn’t harden for at least 24 hours! (Trust me… we just made it last week… and this has already been tested out about 24 trillion times!!)
  2. This play-dough recipe does not require any cream of tar-tar! (Something I always, always want to buy since it has many cleaning and cooking purposes, but I can never remember to simply put it on my list… SO annoying!!)
  3. A lot of the play-dough recipes that I looked up actually require baking… (Ummm no-thanks!)
  4. This recipe makes a LOT of play-dough!
  5. The best part was that I was able to just throw all of the ingredients into a huge mixing bowl, and let my gorgeous two-year old daughter mix it all up all by herself! (Soooooo easy!!!!!)

What You’ll Need:

  • 1 cup of Water
  • 2 Tbsp of Vegetable Oil
  • 1 1/2 cups of Table Salt
  • 4 cups of Flour
  • A big Mixing Bowl

All you need to do is throw all of the ingredients into a big mixing bowl, and mix, mix, mix!

I actually got about five “servings” of play-dough out of this recipe, each about the size of my fist! I just put the servings into zip-lock baggies and threw them into the freezer… So next time the play-dough dries up — I’m completely prepared!

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Also, in case you haven’t noticed yet, I pulled an epic mom fail while making this play-dough!!! I completely always, also forget to buy food-coloring!!! Hence, my “white-ish” play-dough… BUT! I figure that maybe we can turn that into another fun activity of color-mixing and adding color into the play-dough the next time we are looking for something to do! I actually ended up throwing a little bit of green glitter into the mixture, just to spice it up a little bit! 😉

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Classic Tire Swing

Classic Tire SwingAh, the Classic Tire Swing! It was actually my brilliant neighbour that came up with this totally nostalgic idea…. So credit to my good friend Courtenay of The Creek Line House for this one! 🙂 Step 1Step #1: Find an old Tire!
Finding the perfect tire is probably a little easier than you actually think! Tires are one of those things that are hard to dispose of, so people will often give away old tires for free… Yes — FREE!!!  One place to always check are the classified ads, such as Kijiji… And the second place to check is with farmers! Farmers often go through a higher rate of tires than the average household and they will probably have a much larger selection of different sizes and types to choose from!
Step 2Step #2: Drill a HOLE
The best way to drill the perfect hole into the tire is by using a Hole Saw, (aka: Hole Cutter)! The hole saw is centered onto a drill bit which will create a stationary point, while the teeth of the hole saw gently saw through, preventing large chunks from breaking of. Slow and gentle is the best way to use this tool!
Step 3Step #3: String up a Rope!
Finding the perfect branch for your new tire swing is SO exciting!!! But once you have found the perfect branch, you need to find the PERFECT ROPE to string up over it! I recommend choosing a rope with minimum elasticity, but that is still very strong and flexible. It is important that your rope is also abrasion resistant and will properly withstand the 4 Seasons! Here is a helpful link provided by Home Depot for choosing the perfect rope: Rope Buying Guide
Step 4Step #4: Fasten Tire, Enjoy & Smile 🙂
Fasten your tire by pushing the rope through the hole and then tying a giant knot — sooooo simple, right?! Then ENJOY!!!!!