Recipes for Preschool Crafts

by Aunt B

Copyright 2004-2006 Story Soup Kids, a division of Enchanted Corner

Crafts Recipes for Kids

Gloop

8 oz white craft glue
1 cup water
1 cup warm water
1-1/2 teaspoons borax powder
Tempera paint (mix colors if desired)

1. Pour the glue into a large bowl. Add water and stir until blended. Add a few drops of paint and stir until mixed well. Set this mixture aside. 
2. In a small bowl, stir together the warm water and borax powder until the powder dissolves. 
3. Slowly pour this mixture into the glue mixture, stirring continually for two minutes. 
4. Knead the gloop with your hands until it's smooth and stretchy. 
Store in an airtight container.

Soap Flakes Finger-paint

1 cup soap flakes 
1/2 cup water 
Dry tempera or food coloring 

Blend flakes and water until thick and smooth. Stir in color if desired. Use a blob on slick-finished paper or in the bathtub!

Kool-Aid Play Dough

2- 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup salt
2 pkg. unsweetened Kool-Aid
2 cups boiling water
3 tablespoons vegetable oil 

Mix all dry ingredients together. Add water and oil and stir. Knead with hands when mixture is cool. 

Store in air-tight container. This recipe lasts for several months.

Giant Bubbles 

1 cup liquid detergent (or no-tears baby shampoo) 
1 cup glycerin (or corn syrup) 
3 cups water 
Food coloring (optional) 
Round bubble blower made of thin wire (6-8 inches in diameter) 

Mix all ingredient together. May add food coloring for colored bubbles. 
To make bubble blower, bend a wire clothes hanger into a circle. To form the handle, twist the hook opposite the circle. Wrap the handle with electrical tape or yarn. For bigger bubbles, wrap the circle with cotton twine. This will help absorb more soap mixture. The rounder the circle, the better it works. Florist wire can be used to make smaller wands with different shapes.

Crayon Soap for Bath Time!

1 cup of pure soap flakes 
Liquid food coloring 
2 tablespoons of hot water 
One Large Bowl
Several Small Bowls
Ice Cube Tray or Candy Molds for fun shapes.

Have a small bowl for each food coloring you plan to use. 
Put soap flakes in the large bowl. 
Drop the hot water into the soap flakes, stirring constantly. The mixture will be extremely thick and will be very hard to stir. 
Spoon some of the soap mixture into each small bowl. 
Add you food coloring by “DROPS“, stirring constantly until the soap mixture attains the consistency of very thick school paste. 
Press the colored soap mixture into the molds.
Set aside and allow them to dry and harden. This can take a few days to a week, depending on the temperature and humidity in your area. 
After they are dry, pop them out of the molds and let dry a few more days before you use them. 
This will make 15 to 25 crayons, it depends on the size molds that you use. Most ice cube trays make about 20 crayons. Candy molds will make more because they are generally smaller in size. 

*If they are left in the bathwater where they dissolve just like a bar of soap *

Recommended Craft Books to Read

Recipes for Art and Craft Materials
by Helen Roney Sattler
With these inventive recipes for making inexpensive materials for art and craft projects, you can cook up your own paste, paint, ink, clay, and dough with ingredients readily available at a grocery store, a drugstore, or in your own kitchen cupboards. Each of the seventy recipes includes step-by-step instructions, special hints for making projects go more smoothly, and safety tips.

I Made It Myself!: Fantastic Crafts and Recipes (Nick Jr)
by Nickelodeon
Children love making things themselves, and this book is choked full of crafts, and recipes, designed just for them by the experts at Nick Jr. Create musical instruments, design a puppet theater, make a homemade gift for someone special, and wrap it in homemade wrapping paper. Die-cut tabs, stencils, stickers, punch-outs, and foldout craft paper add to the fun. 

Dough for It
by Pamela M. Hartley
Welcome to the wacky world of dough and slime! This delightfully written book delivers dozens of downright distinctive dough recipes. Some you will recognize as old favorites; the ever-famous salt dough for example. Other recipes will surprise, entice, and perplex your basic dough knowledge; add coffee, shampoo, Jell-o, cheese, or sawdust!