Homemade Silly Putty

From: Frugal Fun 4 Boys

I've been wanting to try this activity for about two years and my kids are finally at the perfect age for it! I grew up loving Silly Putty, did you? I put that stuff on everything to make cool designs. Well, it turns out you can make it in your kitchen!

What You'll Need:

• 1/2 tsp Borax
• 1/4 cup warm water
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 2-3 oz school glue
• Food coloring (optional)

Dissolve the Borax in the warm water.

Mix together the borax/water mixture with the cornstarch and glue, and food coloring if desired. Mix it all together. It starts out pretty gooey but the longer you mix the more it will become putty-like.

I noticed mine was pretty moist and squishing out water so I added a bit extra cornstarch as I was kneading it, just like I would do when making bread. 

Also, the more playing the kids did, the more it became the consistency that I remembered as a kid. The food coloring didn't really add anything to it, so it's definitely optional.

We started out with the obvious choice to run over the putty - a tractor. The pictures aren't great but you get the idea.

 A pony pranced through Brianna's silly putty:

Now this is the consistency I remember growing up. Cool!

And this stuff is strong! Brianna strapped it onto a big truck and pulled the truck around with the putty.

If you want to save it and play with it again later, dip it in water and place it in an airtight container.

Thumbs up to this fun project! We'll be doing this again!

Toy Baskets

I just posted this exact blog at my frugal blog, but wanted to make sure everyone saw it. :)

For a long time I have struggled with the amount of toys our kids have. But some of the toys are really, really great and I can't bear to part with them. On the other hand, I don't want our house overrun with toys. We have a Step 2 toy box that is completely overflowing with just the toys that fit in there (so not including strollers, lawn mowers, wagons, etc.) and it just got to where the living room was always trashed. There was no good way to clean up because we just didn't have a good way to organize everything. And even when everything was organized, it was lining the walls, fireplace, shelves, toy box, etc.

Well, in the past couple of months we have started playing upstairs more often during the day. The kids have some toys in the attic and just a few in their rooms, but I thought, "Man, what we need up here is a toy box in each of the kids' rooms, so they can pick things they want to play with while we're up here... and then LEAVE UP HERE."

Just a couple of weeks after this thought, we went to visit Stephen's grandmother. One thing about Nenah is, if you need something, you can pretty much guarantee that she has it somewhere. I was rummaging through her basement and found these really cute baskets with the tags still on them!

Before: Ugly color, cute baskets!

It didn't take much for Nenah to demand that I take them home. I was excited to think that perhaps I had found my toy baskets for the upstairs!

The next step was to choose which toys could go upstairs and which could go out the door forever. Thank goodness our yard sale was coming up in a few days! Our living room finally looked like a living room that children play in. Rather than a living room that children have destroyed.


I already knew what I wanted to do - one pink basket and one blue basket. I know, so cliche, but deal with it.

First step: priming the baskets!

Next step: Applying pretty pink paint! See, one is ugly yellow, one is cute pink?

And there you have it! So simple!

Hunter's in his room:

Oh, then I found this fabulous ribbon at Michaels that goes perfectly with Brianna's! I just had to have it! When I get time I'm going to cut slits in the cloth and weave the ribbon through it, but this is just to give you an idea:

I know they're not professional or anything, but it makes me feel good to do accomplish something myself. I didn't have to buy the baskets pre-made or anything so I am proud of myself. The whole project cost about $7-8 which is totally worth it to me and probably cheaper than I would have paid for baskets that looked like this. I know the regular price tag on each basket was $9 each, so I basically saved 50% when you think of it like that. :)

Oh, What a Difference...

What a difference a toy box can make!!

Before:

After:

We had talked about getting a toy box for a long time and could never find one that was just right. We mentioned it to Leila one night on the phone, and lo and behold, within just one or two days she actually found one exactly like we wanted at a thrift store in Georgia! And talked the owner down from $20 to $15!! What an Oma!

I love how much easier it is to clean up. It's very obvious to Bri where her toys go when it's cleanup time, and she doesn't drag quite as much out during the day. Although there are still days when our living room looks like the first pictures! :)