Color Swirl Marbled Playdough

This is super fun to make and it turns out looking so cool. Plus you only need 3 ingredients to make it.  You can swirl as many colors as you'd like but I chose to just use combinations of 2 colors.  Here's the red and yellow color marbling :

Now, let me show you the simple steps involved in making this fun stuff.


1.  Mix the salt and hot water together in a large saucepan.  Bring it to a boil while stirring constantly.  Do this for about 3 minutes, until it's really incorporated and thickened.

2.  Remove the mixture from the heat and then add the cornstarch and 1/2 cup of cold water.  You can mix it with a spoon until it cools off.  After that, you'll want to mix it with your hands to get all the lumps out until it's smooth.  It should be thick and pasty, but also pliable like store-bought playdough.

3.  Separate the dough into different piles.  We had enough for two big wads of dough for both of the kids, but you could divide them into smaller portions.

4.  Add the different colors of food coloring you'll be using to create your swirl effect.  Just add streaks and dots of each color randomly onto the dough.  Then, just squish the dough with your hands to work in the food coloring and create the swirl effect.  It gets you pretty messy, but it's neat to see what you come up with.  Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of how I added the food coloring, but as long as you add your colors randomly, it should work out.  Try to add equal amounts of each color.  You can add more than 2 colors, but I wouldn't recommend adding more than 4 colors or it will turn gray.  Just have fun with it and see what combinations you can create!


Here's our blue and green playdough:

Here's the recipe:


Color Swirl Marbled Playdough

2 cups salt
2/3 cup hot water
1 cup cornstarch 
1/2 cup cold water 

Mix salt and hot water in a saucepan.  Stir constantly at a boil for 3 minutes.  Remove from heat, add cornstarch and cold water.  Mix with a spoon until cooled and then mix together with hands until smooth.  Separate into different piles and then add different random streaks or dots of different colors of food coloring.  Mix the food coloring into the dough, by squishing it with your hands repeatedly.  To store the playdough, place it in a tightly closed sandwich bag or plastic container.


Try this out with your kids and see what kinds of colorful playdoughs you can make.