I loved playing with silly putty when I was little…favorite thing ever. Was right up there with neon leggings, pompom socks and snap bracelets. I’m not sure if you can still buy this in stores anymore so the alternative? Whip up your own! There’s a couple different ways to make it, one being with liquid starch (didn’t have on hand) or the other way with borax (which I had) so we’ll just go with that recipe! It’s ridiculously easy and there’s a lot of give to the recipe. I’m positive that you can’t mess it up.
For a small batch follow the recipe below (it’s halved). For a larger batch double it up!
- 1/2 bottle of school glue (about 4oz)
- 1/2 bottle of water
- 1/2 tsp borax mixed into about 1/4 cup of water
- food coloring (optional)
Pour your glue into mixing bowl. Fill the empty glue bottle to about 1/2 full with water. Add to bowl. Mix it up. At this point you can add a few drops of food coloring. I forgot and did it later.
Slowly add the borax/water mixture while stirring. It’ll start to look really gross and slimy.
Keep mixing with your fork. (I added food coloring at this point).
To make it easier, transfer this mix to a baggie so you can mix squish and mix it well using your hands without dying them blue. Once it’s mixed, you may need to dry off the excess water with a paper towel if you don’t want it super slimy. Or just give it to your kids to play with and it’ll slowly dry/firm up a bit, like this:
It’s very soft, squishy and somewhat rubbery. Keep in mind the more you play with it and expose it to air, the more rubbery it’ll get. You’ll even be able to roll it into a ball and bounce it or pull it apart and make it snap! Grab some cookie cutters and have fun!
Original recipe found here.
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Awesome! I loved Silly Putty when I was little. Thanks for the recipe. By the way, I pinned this like an hour ago and it’s been repinned like a bajillion times. My inbox is going crazy with repins and likes, lol.
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Thanks for sharing! It’s super easy to make – have fun with it! :)
Amanda
I used to make my own silly putty… thanks for the reminder, I’ll have to make up a batch for my 4 year old.
You’re welcome! Have fun! I need to make a new batch…I keep forgetting to pick up glue!
Hi Amanda I have just been introduced to your site by a mutual relative (sharon) and I have been sitting here looking through it . Amazing and I am so going to be making some silly putty tomorrow for my kids
Hi Stacy! Thanks! The silly putty is a ton of fun :)
I can’t wait to try this out when my son gets a little older…granted he’s only 7 weeks old! I still remember flattening it onto newspaper and then peeling it off to see the mirror image. So fun!
That sounds like fun, I should try it.
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I recommended this to my daughter for a school project she has to teach the younger kids how to do or make something everyone was doing like duct tape or a deck of cards or I suggested play dough or putty she loved the idea and the little kids loved making it
Thanks :)
That’s wonderful! Thanks for sharing Pat! :)
To day at my school in a club called science club we made silly putty. I wanted to make it during the weekend. I think you are soooooooo cool.
So my daughter has been bugging me all weekend to make this silly putty. We are on our 2nd attempt and it isn’t thickening up. How long are we supposed to mix it til it starts to look like silly putty? We both are a little sad this isn’t working out
Oh no! The recipe works perfectly for me everytime! More borax should make it thicker.
i am in china i found some glue but no borax is there any thing else i can use besides borax?
i need silly putty for a job here and it keeps disapearing .
Thanks for this. I was told by my sons therapist that this kind of thing would help with fine motor skills. I turned mine a pretty lavendar color: I think it was one drop of red and several drops of blue until I got the right hue, then I added 6 drops of lavendar essential oil to give it fragrance. Very relaxing and therapeutic!
I love that you added lavender with it to add another layer of sensory play. Great tip! Thanks for sharing!
What is borax?
can you use something else?
This didn’t work at all, it tuned out nothing like your picture or like silly putty. It is like jello that can crumble apart into pieces. It could be slime if it stretched instead of broke up into tiny pieces. My 4 year old is very disappointed. And of course I used the last of our glue to try this. I followed the instructions exactly, so I don’t understand how it turned out like this and yours is like silly putty.
Sorry to hear it didn’t work for you! I’m wondering if maybe it was the brand of glue? Or borax?
Hi, could you please be a bit more specific with which glue and which borax used. Ie was it powder or crystal etc.
Many thanks x
I dbled the recipe exactly and used non Elmer’s glue as I heard it wouldn’t bounce as well as standard white glue. Then i used “20 mule team borax”. It came out like slimmy Gac which I like its no silly putty. So…don’t use these products …or something.