valentines sparkle slime {and a free printable}

We had a bit of a rainy Saturday last weekend, and decided it would be the perfect time to try our hand at a fun little Valentine’s craft with the kiddos.

Our lives have been in such a state of upheaval, this was a great project to stop and slow down and make something fun. Bonus feature = Chemistry!

So we decided to make a few batches of sparkle slime with a small Valentine’s twist.

I’m no chemist, but we tried our hand at a few classic recipes, along with additions and subtractions of our own. We love this one because it had that perfect, slime-like consistency that you can play with and then nicely put away without making a catastrophic mess. It was actually quite fun with the trial and error and what worked and what didn’t. {We even have a (messier) silly putty recipe below, by default} So we’ll touch on those, too.

And free printables to boot!

So without further ado, how to make sparkle slime!

What you’ll need:

• Detergent: We opted for the less-chemically kind. Tide free and gentle fit the bill.

• Baking soda – here

• Glitter glue – preferably Elmer’s.

• You’ll also need: A teaspoon to measure / stirring sticks / clear glass bowl / measuring cup / water

• You may prefer a protective surface to work on like wax paper – we found that that glossy side of freezer paper did the trick.

What doesn’t work: the very dense glitter glue in the craft section does not work – we tried a few different kinds, and you need some that has the majority of a gel-like component… not some with a heavy glitter base. Also, don’t use the classic white glue with this. You’ll get slime EVERYWHERE. Like, slimed in the face with Slimer from Ghost Busters slime. Honestly, it was hilarious. I was looking for a nice pretty little pastel look and failed. It’s interesting to look at the difference, because clearly I’m no chemist. But we now have a silly putty recipe with white glue, below.

Plain clear glue also works, and we plan to try that. You can add your own food coloring/glitter if you wish, which will be a fun extra step. Today, we decided to keep it simple.

Take 1 cup of hot water  + 1 Tablespoon of baking soda. Stir and let sit.

Place 100 ML of glitter glue in a bowl – We basically just squeezed out the majority of the bottle because aintnobodygottimetomeasure. Mix in 1 Tablespoon of liquid detergent {tide free and clear has less of those chemicals}

Mix it, and immediately you’ll see it start to congeal.

Take your gloopy mixture, and place it in the hot water/baking soda mixture.

You can move it around with your hands at this point, and you’ll feel the slime start to really solidify. Move it around a couple of times, and then place it back on your work surface.

At this point, work it like you would bread dough, until it dries up a little. It should be the perfect, slimy consistency you’re looking for.

Remember, this was after a little trial and error from us, and humored children. So we {the adults} were all, “Yaaaaasssss. We can do anything! We totes should have been doctors or something.”

Too far? Nah.

We made different colors, and the kids LOVE it.

You can even mix in various strands for a “rainbow” slime.

Here’s the silly putty recipe.

What you’ll need:

• White Elmer’s Glue.

• Corn starch

• Food coloring

• What doesn’t work: The opposite – Glitter glue. ;} It becomes too white, and doesn’t mesh well.

Note: You’ll want to play with this one on a protected surface. It was definitely likened to bread dough, and the more corn starch you add, the more solidified it becomes.

Add your glue in a bowl, and the color of your choice.

Then, add your corn starch. Keep stirring until you’re happy with the consistency. A basic ratio to remember is corn starch to glue = 2 :1.

Messy, but fun.

If you want to hand these out for Valentine’s, we have a nice little printable, too. These obviously work better with older kids who aren’t going to put things in their mouths or get them all over your furniture {Cue cringe face emoji}.

We used these little containers for the perfect seal to keep them fresh.

And then topped them off with our labels and free printables. Want them? {valenslimeblue, valenslimered, valenslimeyellow}.

Just hit click and download – then set them up to print with your printer and the stickers.

They’re the cutest, if we do say so ourselves.

The kids had a blast with these recipes.

As always, let us know if you try it!

Pssst…. Don’t miss our other Valentine’s ideas here with lots of free printables, or if you’re looking for something fun for the season…

Our cute ‘lil Heartbreaker tees, here!

Have an inspired day!

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