21 Free Play Dough Mat Printables & Homemade Recipes

Keep those little ones entertained with these free play dough mat printables and easy homemade recipes. 

Play Dough -A Fun Indoor Activity

Are you looking for a fun activity to do with children at home? You’re in luck! 

Today we’re talking all about play-doh, but don’t be stressed! We’ll share some tips to make it less messy for you! 

How To Avoid Lots of Cleanup

Call me a lame mom, but I HATE all the toys that get dough stuck in all the nooks and crannies and drive me crazy and take forever to clean out!  

That’s why we’re a big fan of play mats! They are so much fun to play with and add no extra mess or clean up. 

Plus, they don’t take a lot of room to store. Another win! 

So if you’re anything like me this should be right up your alley.

TIP

If you hate when all the dough colors get mixed together evidently making all the dough turn brown, consider making just yellow and blue play dough. That way, when it gets mixed together, it will be green. 

You could also do red and yellow to make orange or blue and red to make purple. 

The Best Homemade Play Dough Recipes

I’ve seen a million recipes for homemade play dough, so we tested out a few! 

Let’s face it. The real Playdoh brand is expensive and it doesn’t stay soft very long, so making your own is a good way to go!

Here’s our favorite recipes:

Cream of Tartar Recipe 

Any of the cream of tartar recipes seem to work the best.  We’ve tried dying the dough with both kool aid from this post…

http://www.theidearoom.net/tag/play-dough-recipes

And just regular food coloring recipes…

http://www.rustandsunshine.com/2011/09/homemade-play-dough.html

Hair Conditioner Recipe 

I was excited when I found a recipe with just two ingredients; hair conditioner and cornstarch.  We tried it out and although it smelled great and was super soft, it just didn’t hold up well when we actually played with it.  It stuck to the play mats and was a mess.  So stick with the tried and true recipes above.

How To Make Your Own Play Dough Mats

Making your own mats is super easy. 

1. Choose which mats you want to print. Print on a color printer. 
2. Put two mats together back-to-back, place in a laminator sheet and run them through your home laminator. 
3. If you don’t have a laminator, put them in a sheet protector. 

SHOP THE SUPPLIES 

21 Free Printable Mats For Holidays & Everyday

And last but not least, here are the 20 mats I put together to share with you today…

>CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD ALL THE FREE PRINTABLE MATS<  

OTHER FREE PRINTABLE MATS 

Like I said there are SO many fun and free dough mats out there, but here are a few links to some cute ones I came across to save you the search…

• http://mothersniche.com/free-play-dough-mat-printables/
• http://planetoftheapels.blogspot.com/2011/09/busy-bag-swap-day-5-playdough-mats_05.html

And one of my favorites where the letters actually look like play dough…

• http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.net/2011/12/12-days-of-christmas-busy-hands-play/

*So Festive with Kids is series contributed by Andrea, a creative mom to 3 boys who always has a fun idea for the little ones.  All photos and ideas are original to her.