Make Colourful New Years Confetti Playdough

I can’t believe New Years Eve is just a few days away? Can you believe how fast this fall has flown!?

And I’d be totally unprepared for our annual kid-friendly party if I hadn’t come up with a bunch of fun ideas last year that I plan on re-using, including today’s recipe for the most colourful New Years confetti playdough that you can make!

If you’re looking for a festive activity to keep little hands busy and having fun, while you are catching up with friends and maybe even sipping some bubbly – check out my recipe below.

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A Happy (and Festive) Accident…

To give due credit, my son actually created this recipe last year while playing with what I intended to be Shortbread Cookie Playdough.

When I included some colourful rice in a shaker as “sprinkles,” the lid was soon off and rice was everywhere!

When we finally cleaned up, all the rice was mixed into the playdough and it looked so fun and sparkly…just like confetti at a New Years party!

How to Make Colourful New Years Confetti Playdough (without the mess!)

To make this playdough, you don’t have to go through the messy steps we went through. Yay!

You can just follow these steps and have the fun and festive final product – ready for little hands and lots of fun.

Confetti Playdough Supplies:

White rice
Food colouring (I used neon green, regular green, neon pink, neon blue, and regular yellow from McKormick’s)
Vinegar
Flour
Salt
Water
Oil
Cream of Tartar
Silver glitter
Playdough tools & accessories, Star Cookie Cutters, etc.

Step 1: Make Your Dough

BASIC RECIPE

2 cup all purpose flour
1 cup salt
2 tsp. cream of tartar
2 tbsp. vegetable oil
2 cups water

PREPARATION:

Mix all the dry ingredients well in a pot. Add the oil and water and mix well. Cook over medium heat, stirring until the dough is sticky but not wet.

Remove the dough to a cutting board and let it cool for a minute or two. Knead the dough until smooth.

Now is the time to add in the silver glitter. Try a couple teaspoons. Store the playdough in an airtight plastic bag or container when not in use.

Step 2: Make Your Confetti Coloured Rice

Before you start making the coloured rice, you’ll want to decide if you’re going to use it for just this playdough or for other activities as well.

I tend to make big batches of coloured rice for sensory play and then I re-use it over and over by storing it in large Ziploc bags when it’s not being used.

So far I’ve used this cheerful coloured rice for:

“sprinkles” for Shortbread Cookie Playdough play
“candy sprinkles” in a Pom Pom Ice Cream Shoppe sensory and math bin
seed decorations in Easy Seedy CD Art and Science

If you just want enough rice for this playdough, you’ll probably only need about 1 cup.

PREPARATION:

Spread the white rice out on a cookie tray or plate.
Spray it liberally with white vinegar.
Drop a couple drops of food colouring onto the rice and stir around with a spoon until all the rice is coated with colour.
Leave it to dry for a few hours.
To make multiple colours, just put the rice on separate plates/trays.
Mix the different colours together when dry to make rice “confetti.”