Christmas Scented Playdough

 Last night I started out making Peppermint Playdough from the Idea Room for my preschoolers. I originally had the idea to make it 1/2 red and 1/2 plain, and twist it into candy canes and wrap it up in cute bags for 10 little ones. Well, I found an easier idea in the process. I ended up making  3 colors, and formed it into "Christmas ornaments"- as in the above photo. I cut a piece of a sparkly pipecleaner and inserted it into each one to make it look like those pretty ball ornaments.
Here is the what I did:

Christmas Playdough:
For RED:
1 cup flour
1/4 cup salt
2 TBSP. Cream of Tartar
1 1/2 TBSP extract (peppermint for red)
Red food coloring (quite a bit to get a red color)
1 cup water
Combine dry ingredients in a sauce pan. Add liquid ingredients, except for food coloring and stir over medium heat until a soft ball forms. Add the food coloring and knead the dough until the color is distributed evenly.
FOR GREEN: Add MINT EXTRACT instead and green food coloring
FOR WHITE/PLAIN: ADD PEPPERMINT EXTRACT and no food coloring
Extracts can be found in the spices aisle at your grocery store. I found mine at Wal-mart for a good price.

This was my Christmas gift for my preschoolers. Playdough can be a mess, but the thrill for the children is worth it to me. My kids had too much fun making "Christmas pancakes" with it. And yes, there was a big mess to clean up. My sweet husband took care of that part!