Made-in-a-Minute Play-Dough

Ingredients:

1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
1 Tbsp. cream of Tartar
1 Tbsp. oil
1 cup boiling water, mixed with the food coloring of your choice

Put all dry ingredients in a bowl and add the oil and colored, boiling water. (Mix the boiling water and coloring in a Pyrex bowl before mixing with dry ingredients.) Mix vigorously until well blended. Store in plastic sandwich bags.

Neat Idea: "My nursery school teacher friend who gave us this recipe many years ago also used fruit tea bags mixed with the boiling water to make a lovely scented dough. She often used plum or black currant to give it a gorgeous color."

Submitted by Linda @ Penny-wise

Homemade Play Clay

2 cups of flour

1 cup of salt

1 cup of cold water

Various food colorings

Mix up all the ingredients until they resemble a relatively stiff dough consistency.  Adjust by adding more water or flour if necessary. You can add food coloring to it and store in a plastic bag in the fridge. Use it as clay or you can use it to make ornaments. Just roll it out and use your favorite cookie cutters. You should bake them for about an hour at 230 degrees--they should feel hard when done. Cool and decorate, or paint. Mom, you can protect the masterpieces by painting them with polyurethane.

Submitted by Heather @ Penny-wise

Simple Knitted Dishcloths & Washcloths

These make great gifts and you can make them slightly larger and use them for lovely wash cloths. I use the 48 stitch size for both dishcloths and washcloths, if you prefer a smaller dishcloth just use 44 stitches.

Bundle 2 to 3 together in ribbon and add to a gift basket of kitchen items, or for wash cloths in a baket of bath goodies. You can of course just give them as they are, or keep them for yourself. They are lovely to share and much nicer than store bought.

Here's what you'll need:

Size 8 knitting needles

I like Lily Sugar'n Cream yarn - 1 ball makes 2 dishcloths. Use any color you like.

.Cast on 3 stitches

• Row 1: Knit across row.
• Row 2 Increase one stitch and then finish knitting across row. Repeat this row till you have 48 sts on needle.
• Row 3: K to last 2 sts; k 2 together to decrease.

Repeat Row 3 till you are back down to 3 sts again. Cast off. Use a small crochet hook or a needle to weave in loose ends. 

These last a long time and make a good project for you and your child.

Submitted by Linda @ Penny-wise