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Rainbow Unicorn Playdough

by Katie Wallace | Updated: March 28, 2018

My kids love color, glitter and playdough. We combined all three of these and made rainbow unicorn playdough! This easy salt dough recipe involves creating a range of playdough colors and mixing them all together. Of course, a generous sprinkling of glitter is the finishing touch.

Easy homemade Rainbow Glitter Playdough for kids

To make homemade playdough you need water, vegetable oil, salt, cream of tarter, and flour.

Playdough Ingredients

  • 2 cups water
  • 2 tbsp. vegetable oil
  • 1/2 cup salt
  • 1 tbsp. cream of tartar
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • Green gel food coloring
  • Food coloring & glitter (optional)

How To Make Playdough

Mix together the water, vegetable oil, salt and cream of tartar in a saucepan over low heat until warm. It’s helpful to fully dissolve the salt into the water before adding the flour. Slowly mix in the flour and stir until the mixture reaches a doughy consistency.ย  Remove from the heat and let it cool.

Easy homemade salt playdough with cream of tarter

Easy homemade salt playdough

We divided up our homemade salt playdough into balls and kneaded food coloring into each piece. It’s helpful to use parchment paper as your work surface so you don’t stain the countertop. You can create a bunch of colors by kneading food coloring into small pieces of the cooled white playdough!

Homemade rainbow unicorn playdough kids activity

Add Glitter & Essential Oils

Sprinkle your homemade unicorn playdough with glitter and let your kids have fun mixing the colors. I reminded my kids that mixing all of the colors will eventually create brown. However, they had a lot of fun making colorful playdough creations! We were even able to salvage some of the individual playdough colors to save for later. If your kids mix all the playdough together into brown, you can always make more!

Glittery Rainbow Unicorn Playdough How-to

We also added some lavender essential oil to our playdough. Essential oils make the dough smell not so salty and turns regular playdough into an aromatherapy activity!

Rainbow playdough with essential oils

My kids always enjoy making playdough and it’s an easy project I can whip up to fill an afternoon. Playdough also teaches kids how to play independently and provides opportunities to practice sharing. My girls love any creative activity that involves glitter and color!

Easy DIY Rainbow Unicorn Playdough

Colorful glittery unicorn playdough is easy to make and fun to play with. Your kids will love making shimmery creations with this fun sensory activity. Which colors will you create?

Rainbow Unicorn Playdough kids activity and recipe

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Easy DIY Rainbow Unicorn Playdough for preschool or kids sensory activity

Katie Wallace
Katie Wallace

Hi, I’m Katie! I live with my husband and 4 kids in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. I love Jesus, coffee, creative projects, photography, and traveling. I’ve previously worked as a web designer, journalist, and barista. I hope you enjoy our creative projects and family adventures!

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jana moseley
jana moseley
7 years ago

This looks fun and easy for our homeschool!

Reply
Zoe
Zoe
7 years ago

Definately bookmarked, love this and i know my son will too!

Reply
Natalie
Natalie
7 years ago

Love this and the colors mixed like this! My kiddo will love it!

Reply
Liann C
Liann C
7 years ago

What a fun idea! My daughter will love this!!

Reply
Alymommydarling
Alymommydarling
7 years ago

Thank you so much for sharing!! How fun, I cannot wait to try it with my kiddos!

Reply
Hollie Baker
Hollie Baker
7 years ago

This looks like so much fun. My daughter is almost 3 I think we are doing to do this for her birthday in October. She wants a unicorn cake so this would be a fun craft to do with that theme. Thank u

Reply
Natalie
Natalie
7 years ago

This would make a great last diy project before summer break is up with the kids

Reply
Dagmar M
Dagmar M
7 years ago

How fun!!

Reply
Sara Phillips
Sara Phillips
7 years ago

My son is almost 3 and is beginning to enjoy playdough more and more. This would be fun to make together!

Reply
Kim
Kim
7 years ago

I love the idea of adding essential oil!

Reply
Veronica Bohan
Veronica Bohan
7 years ago

What a fun activity!

Reply
Deborah W.
Deborah W.
7 years ago

I love this playdough recipe. The only thing I wouldn’t use is the glitter. It gets in our eyes, mouth, etc. and is pretty hard to ‘get rid of’ if you know what I mean. Thanks for the recipe.

Reply
Leigh Kitchens
Leigh Kitchens
7 years ago

I use this same recipe but have never waited to add the food coloring after it’s made. I’m glad to know it works!

Reply
Laura
Laura
7 years ago

How fun! Definitely planning on making this with the kids!

Reply

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Hi, I'm Katie and we are the Wallace family! We homeschool, go on adventures, and travel internationally with our four kids. I hope you enjoy our creative ideas on Create. Play. Travel.

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