Tag: homemade playdough

No Cook Pumpkin Playdough

No Cook Pumpkin Playdough

Posted on by Rebecca

I’m always a little envious of all the pumpkin festivities that happen over in the Northern hemisphere during the autumn months. How I would love to take the kids pumpkin picking on a farm somewhere. Alas, we will have to settle in creating our own fun and cheer, and I thought what better way than to make up a batch of “Pumpkin Play Dough”.

For this I used my all time, go to, no cook, play dough recipe.

It’s literally ready in 5 minutes and I’ve even mixed up a batch for the boys before running to work in the morning. You’ll need 4 ingredients:

  • 2 cups plain flour
  • 1/2 cup salt
  • 2 tablespoons cream of tartar
  • Between 1 and 2 cups warm water (you keep adding until it feels right)
  • food colouring (optional)

There are several variations on this I’ve seen but this one works for us, every time. If stored correctly, it will literally keep for about 4 to 5 months. The container must be airtight otherwise your play dough will start to dry and form a crust. At the end once you have combined everything, I add a tiny bit of oil to my hands to rub on the outside of the playdough, not more than a teaspoon.

I usually do the initial mixing here while the water is still a bit warm, and then I hand the bowl over to the kids and let them get stuck in there. Add the food colouring into the water before you start to mix as well to ensure an even colour.

All I did for the pumpkin playdough was add in a little cinnamon for smell, its heavenly. You could also create an invitation to play by giving your kids cinnamon sticks, cloves or star anise to play with.

And thats it! Easy right? Now we can create our own mini pumpkin patch.

Love Local – Kelly Ann from “Party Playdough”

Love Local – Kelly Ann from “Party Playdough”

Posted on by Rebecca

The “love local” series focuses on local, proudly South African individuals, making waves in their
industries. Breaking boundaries, creating empires and being the best inspiration of locally produced/manufactured products.

Meet Kelly-Ann Gibbon. The founder and creator of “Party Playdough” is the beginning of an empire. Kelly-Ann creates unique party packs especially designed for childrens parties, as well as the cutest mixed-media/ educational playdough sets. She has won two awards through “MommyMall”, last year walking away with winning the “Mompreneuraward” and this year being awarded the “Naomi Butow Business Excellence Award”.

Read on below to find out more about Kelly Anne and her career journey thus far…

Tell me more about yourself and what you currently do?
I am a full time working mom 🙂 who loves her job. I qualified as an oral hygienist from the University of the Western Cape in 2005, and was awarded the Golden Key international Honours
society award. I really really loved studying and if I ever get the chance I would love to study dentistry. I work in private practice currently along side a dentist, we see clients everyday and provide great high quality service. Our clients are everything to us. I run a recall system which means I am responsible for recalling our patients on a regular basis to maintain their oral hygiene and healthy mouth all year round. So from 8-3pm I am a oral hygienist but then I magically transform to a mommy and playdough queen after working hours 🙂 I love being active so I am quite sporty, I’ve run a handful of half marathons and love training. I also do pole dancing as a sport as well as sup boarding.

How did “Party Playdough” come about?
As a mom, I have catered and planned many parties for my kids. It’s lovely but there is a lot of
sugar that is involved in party planning. Professionally I am helping my clients avoid the effects
sugar can have on their teeth and I think it’s only fitting that I came up with a Sugar-free party
pack don’t you think 🙂 It’s really a educational and fun twist to our usual sugary and unhealthy
sweetly loot bags we have so frequently handed out. I make handcrafted Playdough, specifically
tailored to your party theme. Glittery or plain, and in any colour under the sun 🙂 I’m always up for
a colour challenge 🙂 so far it’s been a beautiful journey. I pride myself on the fact that my dough is
NON toxic and super soft, with NO harmful preservatives or chemicals. I use a natural preservative
, being salt. So if your child takes a little bite out of their Playdough biscuit they so delicately created don’t stress please! Apart from Party Packs I supply mixed media sets too. These are Playdough sets with a theme attached to it. I have many, dinosaurs, silly spiders, under the sea etc. They have been a massive hit and I love creating new themes, currently I’m busy developing a few more which will blow your minds. These sets are aimed at imaginary, educational play, to inspire your child to explore and just have great fun all while improving their fine and gross motor skills.

What was your first job and how did you progress to this?
As most people, I started off as a waitress at spur 🙂 I had to earn some extra moola and progressed to
more academically challenging environment as I realised I needed to further myself. As time passed I became incredibly interested with the idea of being in the dental industry and gravitated I
suppose to where I am today. I really love children and I enjoy my job.

What have been the highlights?
My highlights? There are many.. the birth of my business in 2015, winning the “Mompreneur
award” last year, this year being awarded the “Naomi Butow Business Excellence Award” at the
Cape Sun hotel. My online shop is active and I’m very proud of this development, thanks to my wonderful friend Nelia Smit who designed this for me!
Working hard and really being elevated by these awards surprises because it lifts my spirit to
continuously aim higher and work on my business ideas everyday!

What’s the best part of your job?
Best part….. hmmm.Thats a tricky one but I’d say I pour my heart and soul into my orders so when I get messages and pictures from very happy mommy’s and little customers I smile from ear to ear,
be a use their joy is my joy !

What is the most challenging part?
Time management is a big issue for me why are there only 24 hours in a day. Why cant a supplier
be open at 11pm when I run out if stock 🙂

Describe a typical day in your life.
I feel horrible writing this, because my morning are chaotic but here we go.Wake up at 5:30am,
prep school clothes and lunch boxes, I then organize breakfast for everyone. (I’m addicted to tea so I’mprobably on my second cup by 6am 🙂 ) get everyone up with their breakfasts waiting and inspire them to move it along…. eeeeek the clock is ticking….. I’m always stressing about traffic. Make myself semi decent and try remember to brush my hair. I’m always rocking a mommy bun, not sure I even know where my hair brush is? Fight traffic into town, start up my surgery, I see my first client at 8:15 am. I work straight through till 3pm and jump into the car to collect my monsters from school, juggling school meetings/sports practices/my business orders and queries in between all this chaos is hard, but some how I have mastered the task…. or at least I think I have. We eat a nice warm meal together every night, that quite important to me and discuss our days because if we don’t, I have no clue what is going on in their little lives. My kiddos go to bed at around 7:30pm and that when I start admin work, and my orders. It’s more often than not a very long day for me as I put my head down at 1am. It sounds more crazy than it actually is, I can’t imagine my day being any less hectic to any other mommy out there, but that’s my routine in a nutshell.

We love to break routine, there’s nothing more dangerous than getting stuck in it, so weekends we are All up.early, breathing in the fresh air, eating brekkie on the beach and catching some waves and sun rays, skate boarding or having adventures around us in our beautiful city, you only live once right?

What are the “secrets” to your success?

I sometimes wonder myself but if I carefully think about it, I’d have to say my passion and
dedication to my quality control because in my opinion, having handmade goods can either be a
success or just overlooked. I wanted my dough to really stand out and be special, something every
mom wants to order for their kids. I am quite particular with finer details so I focus on those as I
really feel it and it sets your product apart from the next one. My Playdough is Non-toxic and
handcrafted, specifically tailored for every order. I pride myself on high quality finishes and
beautifully packaged, to create a-wow- factor….

How do you balance being a wife, a mother, all while running a successful business?
So this has been a constant worry because there is only so much you can do. I would not call myself blemish free in this department….. I think I’ve made enough mistakes along the way to realise that as soon as you feel you have a sense of balance in this department, life will come along and totally throw it out of sync…. but to be very honest the answer is to do your best, and have a good support system. Call on those favours, drop the kids off at granny so you can go for a run around the neighbourhood and don’t sweat the small stuff. I’ve burnt many a dinner dish because I’m juggling too much.

What is your dream for Party Playdough?
I dream that this business Will continue to grow from strength to strength and be a constant form
of joy to children all over the world, because yes, even though I’m rooted in the mother city, I have
packs travelling all over the world. Canada, Amsterdam and the USA! I want the playdough love to
travel far and wide and I hope my kids will draw inspiration from my hard work and always know
that what I do, I do for them and their futures.
Currently I’m in partnership with adventure clubs, gazoome play center and bash in Cape Town. I
am their resident Playdough supplier. Negotiations are underway to be in a few wimpy and
Colcacchio stores in the very near future and start branching out even more…

I am the ultimate “Party Playdough” fan and her mixed media kits are amazing! To learn more or order your own Playdough or Mixed Media sets visit www.partyplaydough.co.za

Ill be giving away one lucky reader TWO mixed media sets of your choice!

Simply make sure you are following and have liked, Party Playdough on facebook and Instagram and comment below on what your dream “mixed media set” would be.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PartyPlaydough/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/partyplaydough/

Super stretchy, long lasting Playdough recipe

Super stretchy, long lasting Playdough recipe

Posted on by Rebecca

Here its is, the easiest, super long-lasting playdough recipe that I have ever come across.

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I know I have been promising this one for a while, so sorry for the delay, but I had to make it again, because I didn’t take photos for the blog the first time I did it 🙂 Continue reading “Super stretchy, long lasting Playdough recipe” →

Rainy Day Fun – Play dough and Slime recipes

Rainy Day Fun – Play dough and Slime recipes

Posted on by Rebecca

I try to limit screen time for the kids to early mornings (when I’m usually too tired to think and just want a cup of tea in peace). My eldest son is now going to playschool 3 mornings a week but there is still plenty of time left in the day to be filled with crafts and endless energy for ball games.

With all this rain we have been having, you have to get creative when it comes to keeping the little ones busy, and I’ve gotten a lot of requests on how I make my play dough and slime recipes for the boys so I thought I’d just put it out there for all to share, honestly, these are so quick and easy, you can have homemade fun and banish boredom in less than 5 minutes:

Playdough:

I have my friend Zelda to forever credit for giving me this recipe.

  • 2 cups plain flour
  • 1/2 cup salt
  • 2 tablespoons cream of tartar
  • Between 1 and 2 cups warm water (you keep adding until it feels right)
  • food colouring (optional)

I usually do the initial mixing here while the water is still a bit warm, and then I hand the bowl over to the kids and let them get stuck in there. This should keep up to about 6 months in a sealed container. There is honestly no reason to ever buy playdough ever again!

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Slime

  • 1 bottle art and craft glue (clear or white – I used Bostik’s art and craft glue) (100ml)
  • 100 Ml Water (pour the water into the empty glue bottle its easier)
  • ½ tsp of borax dissolved into ¼ cup warm water
  • A drop of food colouring

Mix together the water and the glue, in a separate bowl dissolve the borax into the quarter cup of warm water, and add a drop of food colouring. Pour this mixture into the water/glue bowl and stir. You will immediately see a gloop ball start to form, keep mixing until it all comes together. (There may be some excess water which you can just discard). You can also add glitter to the slime to really create an intergalactic experience.

TIP: Ive made this 3 times before, a pinch more borax and you can end up with a more solid “bouncy ball” consistency, if this happens you can try adding a little more glue and seal it in a bag to absorb.

TIP 2: Try to avoid getting this onto carpets or clothes, the longer it sits, the more in soaks in. If it does a brush and some vinegar should get it right off.

I hope these two recipes give your kids as hours of endless fun as they do with my boys ! Happy playing!

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