This cloud dough recipe for toddlers is so easy that you will wonder why you have never made it before. If you don’t know what cloud dough is, it resembles a sandy texture but without the annoying sand! Made from oil and flour it is also soooo cheap to make I’d estimate that we used about 40c worth of ingredients today. Not bad for an hours worth of fun, and we can store it away for another day.
You’ll notice that we use cooking oil for our recipe, even though many people use baby oil. The only reason for this is to make it toddler safe. If your toddler puts this in their mouth (let’s face it – it WILL happen), it won’t taste great but it’s perfectly safe. As if to prove my point, my one year old tried to eat handfuls of the stuff. You would think she hadn’t eaten all day!
What you need:
- Plain Flour – 8 cups
- Cooking oil (any kind – I used olive oil because that’s what we had at home) – 1 cup
(halve the recipe if you don’t want too much, but I found that this was a good amount. I had 2 children playing with this much).
What to do:
- Place the flour and oil in a container
- Mix together. Start with a spoon, but you will end up mixing it with your fingers. I let my toddlers do all of this and they had lots of fun making it.
How to play with it:
Cloud dough has an almost sand like consistency, so there’s no limit to how you can use it. I put all of our play dough toys in for one activity, made ‘sandcastles’ another day, and had a pretend baking day on another. Store the cloud dough in a sealed container and it will last for ages.
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Some posts you may enjoy are our Toddler Boredom Buster Series, Toddler Painting Ideas WITHOUT using a Paintbrush and Toddler Boredom Busters
Clare's Little Tots says
I love making cloud dough, Always amazes me. Great idea to use olive oil to make it safe, i’ve always used baby oil because I love the smell. I love your pink tray 🙂 #ToddlerApprovedTuesday
Mummy Melton says
love this idea, I’m always looking for new things to try with mini m #toddlerapprovedtuesday
Jenny says
It looks lovely, we’ll have to try this out! 🙂 x
Gude @HodgePodgeCraft says
Love this stuff!
Thanks for sharing at #Pintorials
Holly says
This is a really great idea! My daughter will love this.
Carol says
Thanks Holly! It’s lots of fun (and not too messy!)
Erin says
Oh, my toddler is gonna love this!
Carol says
Glad to hear it!
Jenni |Dancing in the Rain says
Ooh I’d forgotten about cloud dough. We made some for my boy’s diggers a while back (tried to colour it and it went wrong though…) Need to do this again asap! Great idea to use olive oil 🙂
Carol says
It’s a lot of fun – and one of the less messy of the messy play activities!
Leandra says
We’ve still got cloud dough we made nearly 2 years ago! T used to love it, I might get it out again now I’ve been reminded.
We made ours with aloe baby oil so it smells divine too.
Thanks for sharing with #toddlerapprovedtuesday Leandra & Becky xx
Tarana Khan says
We love cloud dough! The best thing is that toddlers can safely play with it.
susen @Dabbling Momma says
Cloud dough is one of my daughter’s favorite sensory plays! Thanks for sharing at our FB Share Day! Pinning.
Carrie Groneman says
GREAT post and such a fun idea for toddlers. Stopping by from Sat. Evening Family Link Party. Thanks for sharing. Carrie, A Mother’s Shadow
Carol says
Thanks for stopping by Carrie!
Natasha Daniels says
Great and simple idea! I have bought pounds of moon dough before and it is so expensive! I will be making this instead 🙂
Carol says
It was so cheap – definitely less than $1 to make heaps.
Lisa (mummascribbles) says
What a fab idea, something so simple but with so many uses! Great tip with the oil too 🙂 thanks so much for linking up with #TwinklyTuesday
Carol says
Thanks Lisa!
morna says
I will have to give this a try. My two are well beyond the putting things in their mouth stage – I might have to go and buy some baby oil simply because I love the smell so much!! #SundayStars
Carol says
The baby oil definitely smells better!
Let Kids Be Kids says
Cloud dough is great, we made some last year, but I never got around to writing about it. We must do it again.
Thanks for sharing #LetKidsBeKids
Karen (@karenjwhitlock) says
We discovered cloud Dough last summer. It is brilliant isn’t it?! We enjoyed bringing the beach “inside” on wet days. Thanks for sharing on #SundayStars
Nicola - Multicraftingmummy says
We love to make and play with cloud dough! So easy to make and it keeps the kids busy for ages. Thanks for linking it up on the Family Frugal Linky.
Helen @ Peakle Pie says
Home made dough is the best! Your post has been featured on this week’s Frugal Family Linky via Peakle Pie! Hope to see you joining in again soon and remember to pop by and grab your ‘I’ve been Featured’ badge too!
Carol says
Oooh Thankyou! So excited to be featured!
Melissa French, The More With Less Mom says
Who doesn’t love cloud dough?? Too many of the recipes have that one ingredient I don’t have in the house, or costs too much to use on play. Thanks for sharing! Hello from Frugal Family Linky.
Carol says
Thanks Melissa – glad you liked the recipe!
Ali Gilbert says
Wow! That seems so simple (and cheap!!). I am so excited to make this for my daughter!
Deanna @ Play Dough & Popsicles says
We love all things molding and scooping. I’ve tried something similar but it wasn’t the same. Definitely going to try this! I didn’t see in your post, if you said or not, is it possible to color it? Maybe add it to the oil?
Thank you for sharing with Everything Kids!
Frugal Hausfrau says
I am always a bit amazed by this! My grandbabies would love it! Thanks for sharing with us at Throwback Thursday!
Mollie
Adventures of Adam says
We love cloud dough – such an amazing texture.
I have pinned this to the #ToddlerFunFriday board.