What fun! I've been wanting to do this for a long time, and we finally did today. We made our own floam! Okay, technically it is "floam-like dough". We made 5 different colors for a total of under $4, when we would have paid about $35 (plus tax) to buy the same thing pre-made. What a bargain! That tells you how much profit the company makes off of Floam!
The lighting was really bad, so the colors are not good. Jonathan had teal, but it looks sky blue, Jayla's wasn't quite as bright as it appears and the darker blue is actually purple! My hands are now rainbow colors, and the kids' hands have a little color as well from playing with it, but not much. I think after the first time of playing with it, next time probably won't bleed on them.
So here and here are a couple of links and the exact directions for what we did.
The first link says to use food coloring. The second link was actually listed on the first link, and this lady suggested using the Wilton Icing Colors. Well, both of the recipes are a little different. I was really impressed with the pictures in the second link, but I didn't have the Poly Vinyl Alcohol. Long story short, I read both directions several times and decided to combine the two and come up with our own.
This is exactly what we did:
We took a gallon size freezer bag, one for each color. In each one we put 1&1/3 cups of the styrofoam beads, the smaller the better. (I actually took these straight from a beanbag chair!) Next I added 1/2 cup of water/glue mixture (equal parts). I also added a small "smear" of the icing color. I closed the bag and mixed thoroughly until evenly distributed. Next I added 2 Tbsp. of the water/borax mixture. (The first link said 3 and the second link said 1, so 2 seemed to work perfectly!) It almost immediately formed into a ball, but there was still some stuck to the sides of the bag. (This is where it got messy.) I took it out of the bag and scraped as much off the sides as I could and mixed the rest by hand. After just a few short minutes, it was ready to play with!
Jayla was building a wall with hers, and Jonathan was burying a car in his. He wants to use the green to make a dinosaur for a contest (which we need to enter this week). Jacob tried to play with some a little bit, but I think it was too hard for him to manipulate, so he quickly lost interest. The other two played with it for quite a while though. :)
The lighting was really bad, so the colors are not good. Jonathan had teal, but it looks sky blue, Jayla's wasn't quite as bright as it appears and the darker blue is actually purple! My hands are now rainbow colors, and the kids' hands have a little color as well from playing with it, but not much. I think after the first time of playing with it, next time probably won't bleed on them.
So here and here are a couple of links and the exact directions for what we did.
The first link says to use food coloring. The second link was actually listed on the first link, and this lady suggested using the Wilton Icing Colors. Well, both of the recipes are a little different. I was really impressed with the pictures in the second link, but I didn't have the Poly Vinyl Alcohol. Long story short, I read both directions several times and decided to combine the two and come up with our own.
This is exactly what we did:
We took a gallon size freezer bag, one for each color. In each one we put 1&1/3 cups of the styrofoam beads, the smaller the better. (I actually took these straight from a beanbag chair!) Next I added 1/2 cup of water/glue mixture (equal parts). I also added a small "smear" of the icing color. I closed the bag and mixed thoroughly until evenly distributed. Next I added 2 Tbsp. of the water/borax mixture. (The first link said 3 and the second link said 1, so 2 seemed to work perfectly!) It almost immediately formed into a ball, but there was still some stuck to the sides of the bag. (This is where it got messy.) I took it out of the bag and scraped as much off the sides as I could and mixed the rest by hand. After just a few short minutes, it was ready to play with!
Jayla was building a wall with hers, and Jonathan was burying a car in his. He wants to use the green to make a dinosaur for a contest (which we need to enter this week). Jacob tried to play with some a little bit, but I think it was too hard for him to manipulate, so he quickly lost interest. The other two played with it for quite a while though. :)
