Wednesday, June 21, 2017

Crafting with the Kids- Slime Time

I have always loved crafting and now that I have children it gives me a reason to try out new crafts with my playful little assistants. It seems like diy slime is the must-do thing this summer. Every craft store has a stand with slime making materials and if you search in on Pinterest your likely to get a multitude of recipes all claiming to be the best and easiest slime.
When I searched I had a few things that I was looking for in a recipe. 1st- simple household ingredients. 2nd- I wanted slime that stayed together and wasn't overly sticky. I don't want to have to be cleaning slime off of furniture, clothes, or children. I came across two recipes that met my requirements and I figured we could make both and see which we decided was the "best."


The first recipe we tried was for Fluffy Slime. I followed the recipe and instructions posted here from Schooling A Monkey.
Fluffy Slime

Ingredients:

1 cup of Barbasol white shaving cream
1 cup of glue (we used 2 bottles of standard white glue)
1/2 cup of Sta-Flo laundry starch
food coloring (optional)



1. Add glue to a large mixing bowl

2. Add food coloring to the glue, stir

3. Mix in the liquid starch
It will start to get stringy almost immediately. Continue to stir with either a spoon or you can mix with you hands. You will want to stir for several minutes until the mixture becomes less stringy and more like a mass. For mine, there was still a considerable amount of starch in the bowl but the slime was fluffy. I removed it from the liquid and squeezed it to try to remove any additional liquid. I also patted it off with a paper towel which worked well to remove the excess liquid and did not get stuck to the slime. 

4. Play 
It's was just that easy. Slime can be stored in an airtight container or ziplock bag.
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The second slime recipe we tried was a more standard, oozy slime. I found the recipe for this slime here from Preschool Inspirations. 

Oozy Slime
Ingredients:
3/4 cup of glue (we used almost 2 bottles of standard white glue)
1 cup hot water
1/2 teaspoon of Borax
food coloring (optional)
glitter (optional)

1. In a large bowl add 1/2 tsp of Borax to 1 cup of hot water. Stir until dissolved. Let cool.

2. In a separate bowl, mix together 3/4 cup of glue with 1/2 cup of cool water. Add food coloring. We added glitter but you can't tell if you use white glue. If you want to add glitter, add it at this point, but realize you won't really be able to see it unless you use clear glue.

3. Pour the glue mixture into the cooled water/Borax mixture

4. The mixture will start to get stringy almost immediately. Stir for several minutes using either a spoon or your hands. Once it feels like it is less stringy and starting to form a mass, remove from the liquid and knead. Try to squeeze out any excess liquid. 
I would not recommend blotting this slime with a paper towel. It is sticky and the towel will stick to it. 

5. Play
I don't have as much in this photo because I tried to dry it off with a towel which immediately got stuck to it, so I threw that part away.
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So which was our favorite? Both slime were easy to make with simple ingredients, so the deciding factor was how the slime played. 
The fluffy slime wasn't sticky, very squishy, not too oozy, and broke apart fairly cleanly without leaving little pieces everywhere. 
The oozy slime was a bit stickier, left behind more pieces when "broken", and was stringier/oozy.

The winner is... 

... Fluffy Slime!!!

This stuff is seriously awesome. The way is felt was weird but also kind of addictive. I found myself just holding it and working it in my hands when I was talking or bored. Emmett loved it too. This was by far the favorite of everyone who played with the two. So give it a try. Once you buy the shaving cream and liquid starch, you'll have plenty of ingredients to make tons more. I know we'll be making another batch very soon.

FYI: from what I've read, if the slime gets in hair or on clothes, use vinegar to dissolve it away.













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