Watch How to Make Your Own Play Dough at Home With Kids

Every kid loves smooshing around some play dough, right? In fact, kids probably love using play dough just as much as parents hate scraping kids’ erstwhile creations out of the carpet — and finding half of an $8 pack of the stuff dried completely solid once the kids have touched it twice and forgotten to pop the tops back on. But if you’ve sworn off the stuff entirely due to mess and expense, fret not. There is hope for your little dough fiends — and your wallet.

The solution to the spending? DIY your dough instead. It might sound daunting, but it’s totally doable. With a few items you probably already have in your pantry, plus some glitter (which, honestly, plenty of us daring parents keep in our kids art supply cupboard at all times anyway, right?) you have an easy-to-make and vastly less expensive way to entertain the kids.

As for the carpet-scraping, well, you’re on your own with that one.

Ingredients:

• Food coloring
• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup water
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup salt
• 1 tablespoon cream of tartar
• Glitter

Directions:

1. 1. Add water, oil, cream of tartar, salt and food coloring into a pan.
   2. Heat the mixture until it’s warm.
   3. Remove from stove.
   4. Add flour.
   5. Stir and knead, adding in glitter bit by bit.
   6. Store in a zip-close bag or another airtight container.

Want more kid crafts? Try these easy, adorable animal DIYs — or these festive floral crafts you’ll love having around the house, too.

Plus, more great ways to keep kids busy during these seemingly endless school closures, right here.

A version of this story was originally published in September 2014.