Slime ... an Ooey, Gooey, Craft.

My younger daughter has been obsessed with slime lately. She has been making all kinds of slime with all types of ingredients and then seeing if they are a win or a fail. I am going to share just a few of her favorite recipes and a few pictures.

I really can't stand messy crafts ... anyone who knows me knows that is a fact! I taught 2 year olds for many years and although I know that the messy craft is really the one that cements the memory verse and concept you are teaching, I just really did not like if it was a painting craft or one with play dough.  Painting is easier. Play dough ... well that gets all over, in the cracks, under fingernails, and worst of all - it gets mixed together to make "new" colors.

Slime reminds me of play dough. It's messy, sticky (at first) and then can get on things like carpet, clothes, in the cracks of the wood floor ... and then it's just YUCK! Thankfully my 12 yo can do it ALL herself ... I just need to buy some ingredients. And having a grandmother who's a scientist and likes exploring with these kinds of messes is a plus as well - they have a slime area over there now. My daughter is now being an entrepreneur and selling her slime -- with scents (to cover up the very strong Tide smell with essential oils), different colors, different textures (like cloud slime), and then with sparkles or foam beads or crayon shavings. It all baffles me, but it is a somewhat easy thing to make AND it can keeps hands busy for read aloud time and such ... which can make this a plus.

So here is the basic slime recipe ... glue and Tide. Voila! You have slime. You can mix in your color with paint or food dye, but do that BEFORE putting in the "activator" otherwise you will stain your hands. We do the ones without Borax (it's been tied to burnings and causing bad reactions and things like cancer so we steer clear.)

Here are some other variations you can try:

• Mostly shampoo and a little bit of glue. It seems to work with many shampoos so you can just use what you have on hand. And then you can add your "activator."
• Coconut oil (melt until it's still chunky, but soft), glue, choice of color, mix, then add your "activator".
• Toothpaste and hair gel, mix, then freeze for a while (like 2 hours). If that doesn't work you can try adding an "activator". This one she is still working on so she's not sure if it's a fail or not.

• Last one, hand sanitizer (Bath & Body works is the best we've used) - mix and then place in freezer for 2 hours. You can add a color. This one works sometimes and not other times. 

So what is an "activator" - Tide, Borax (but we don't do this one), contact lens solution with baking soda, and salt. My daughter salt is her least favorite ... you need to use too much and sometimes it doesn't work.

Have your children made slime? What's YOUR favorite recipe? My daughter would love to hear from you!

Zirrly - Mega Pack of Supre Beads - A New TOS Review!!!

Ever just need a break -- some fun to interject in your homeschool day, week, month? Then you will love our newest review of Super Beads and arts and craft medium produced by Zirrly. We had a few to choose from so I let my artsy daughter pick and she immediately chose their Mega Pack. I liked it since it was an artsy craft like product that I knew ALL my kiddos would like but seemed it would have very low mess and clean up AND not as much interaction from me for the set up or clean up -- perfect for me!

So what comes in the Mega Pack? Over 4,500 of these cute little beads, 4 color-coded designs x 4 (so 4 people can make the same design [or a different one] at the same time), 4 clear pegboards, 2 small spray bottles (to be filled with water), instructions sheets, and 1 green plastic design tool.

The premise is to make the design by putting the template under your board and then pull the template out and spray your design with water (not drown, but fully wet) and the let dry for an hour. Then use the design tool to help pop the design off of the pegboard to be displayed or played. If it breaks while coming off the board then place it back down and respray with water and let it dry again. This was one of the good things because all you had to do is respray. No complex steps and you don't have to throw the whole thing away.

We did have some that didn't want to 'pop' right off so we just put them back down resprayed and waited. They all eventually came off. Each of my kids chose a different design. But first I had them do a little set up. One of the BIG notes sent from Zirrly was to make sure your hands were CLEAN and DRY. So I made them each wash their hands, dry them, and then wait to be sure they were fully dry. If your hands were wet it would make the bead unusable because it would be in its fused state. While they were doing that I took a prep photo. Then I had them get some little bowls and containers so they could get the colors they'd need for their particular project.

They chose an apple, a cupcake, and an elephant (ROLL TIDE!) I wanted to do the turtle so they saved it for me ... just haven't done it yet. We noticed right away there is a clear right way and wrong way to put the beads on. We also noticed some of them (very few out of all the ones we sorted through) that were what my son called 'duds'. Once we got them all separated and ready I let them go at their own pace. Once they were done I reminded them to remove the template below the board and we went to the sink to spray (so that my table wouldn't get all wet and to keep the overspray off of the other beads.) Then it was time to let it dry. That was the hard part. They did not want to wait.

But once the waiting was over (which we did leave for longer then an hour ... I think it was more humid in our house then we thought) they were all super excited to get their project up. However with one tool (I think for the mega pack 4 tools would be better) they still had to have patience - so we did it in the order of who was done first with their spraying. We did get them all popped off. Here they are! Aren't they so cute??

I know that they are ready to make some of their own creations. Plus they were eyeing some of the other kits that they saw some of our Review Crew got that was different from their packet (which you can check out too by clicking the link below) ... like the Jungle Animals or Spinning Tops. Maybe they will get them for a surprise fun gift over the summer. ;)  Be sure to check out all the other Super Beads and other items Zirrly has to offer. You can also find them on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, and YouTube.