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This homemade Gak recipe is sure to entertain the kids for hours!! The gooey slime is completely squishable, and making it is half the fun.
Our family loves playing with this slime so much, we even made a glittery version! You can also turn this into an inexpensive but cute gift.
Entertain the Kids for Hours!
With it being Summer here in AZ, things are getting pretty HOT, and the kids aren’t as excited to play outside, so I thought it would be fun to make Homemade Gak – aka Slime (It’s something I made all the time with my cousin growing up!)
It is so EASY and literally takes 2 minutes to make, but has provided HOURS (and I’m not even joking!), HOURS of entertainment! Every day, for a week now, the kids have played with this gak for at least an hour each day.
I’ve pulled out plastic cookie cutters and they go to town, and guess what?! I LOVE it! It’s hardly any mess! Here is how you can make DIY Slime/Gak as well!
Ingredient Tips:
- Glue: Just use the good old classic white Elmer’s school glue. Nothing special! Off brands will work just well.
- Borax: Sometimes stores don’t always carry Borax. You can order it on Amazon, or Walmart.com! One box will last a really long time.
- Food Coloring: Gel food coloring definitely works WAY better than the regular liquid food coloring! I got Betty Crocker Neon Gel Food Colors and they worked FAB!! The Neon made it look awesome, but I ended up squeezing almost half the tube into the mixture because I wanted it to be really bright.
How to Make Gak:
- PREP. Gather all your supplies together.
- GLUE + WATER. Begin by emptying the two bottles of glue into a bowl. Then, fill bottles with warm water and shake. Empty into your bowl.
- COLOR. Add some food coloring to the bowl of glue and water, then set aside.**
- BORAX. Add 1/2 cup warm water to your plastic cup. Add 1 tsp. borax to the cup of water and mix until borax dissolves. Then, pour this into your glue bowl and start stirring. You will notice how it starts becoming stringy. Keep mixing by using your hands and squishing the mixture around. A few minutes, it will become pretty gelatinous.
- PLAY! Let the kids play with it for a bit and it will become the perfect GOOEY consistency!
Storing Tips
Keep the gak stored in a sealed container or ziploc bag. It should last for at least a couple weeks, but it may start to develop an odor by then.
Activities to Do with Gak
Not only do the kids have fun pulling, kneading, and squishing the gak, you can also use it for activities like:
- Trying to form/sculpt shapes
- Using cookie cutters to cut the gak into shapes and figures
- Cut it with scissors
- Separate it into multiple pieces and practice addition and subtraction
- Create imprints in the gak with plastic bugs, shells, beads, and other objects
A Note of Caution
Although homemade gak is an extremely easy activity for kids to create themselves (my kids who are 10 and older have no problem making this all by themselves), I would be careful with smaller children who may try to eat the gak.
The borax contained in the recipe is a soap used for laundry, and it’s toxic if ingested. So be aware of little ones who may try to eat the slime!
So fun and so easy!! This is seriously the best homemade craft/project I’ve done with the kids in a long time. It doesn’t smell and get all over like other gooey substances and it’s so fun to play with! PLUS, it is super cheap to make!
Gotta love cheap entertainment! 😉
For more fun kids activities, check out:
Homemade Gak
Ingredients
- 2 4 oz Bottles of Elmer's Glue
- 1 tsp Borax (found in the laundry detergent section of the store)
- Water
- Plastic Cup
- Bowl
- Food Coloring
Instructions
- Gather all your supplies together.
- Begin by emptying the two bottles of glue into a bowl. Then, fill bottles with warm water and shake. Empty into your bowl.
- Add some food coloring to the bowl of glue and water, then set aside.**
- Add 1/2 cup warm water to your plastic cup. Add 1 tsp. borax to the cup of water and mix until borax dissolves. Then, pour this into your glue bowl and start stirring. You will notice how it starts becoming stringy. Keep mixing by using your hands and squishing the mixture around. A few minutes, it will become pretty gelatinous.
- Let the kids play with it for a bit and it will become the perfect GOOEY consistency!
Notes
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Ok We just made this and it is extremely messy! We did everything you did, but maybe it needs more borax? I’m gonna try that next time. It just clings to our hands rather than like the store bought which is more solid. Fun though, if I can get it to turn out right! Thanks!
I just mixed another tsp of borax with about an 1/8 c. warm water and added it to my messy gak. Totally made it perfect!!
I made this today for my son. It was so simple and quick. I can’t wait to do this again with his cousins, and possibly next year at his birthday party for an activity and a take-home gift for the kids!!
I was wondering how much this would make? Is it enough for 6 or 7 kids?
Hi I recently discovered your website and love it! I am trying to be more creative with fun projects for my boys (ages almost 4 and 1). I love being at home with them and I love creative projects, I just need someone to help give me ideas, lol! And I’ve learned I need to plan ahead better (have all the supplies on hand and set aside time to do it). My 3 year old and I just made the Gak (blue his favorite color) while my 1 year old nap and it has been over and hour and he is still playing with it! Thanks! I look forward to more fun ideas!
Please tell me your hands are completely stained too!?!!??
You know what, they weren’t at all!!! Here’s the sad thing… I got the Neon Food Coloring. We made neon green and a few days later neon purple. Then, we decided to make hot pink. It was my hubby’s grandma’s funeral and my mom came to watch the kids for us, so I wanted to make a fresh batch of gak to entertain the kiddos. I was running behind and asked the hubby to finish it off for me. Well, he did but it turned his hands hot pink!! And we were headed straight to the funeral and he couldn’t wash it off. I felt so bad!!! He thought I knew it stained but the green and purple hadn’t. Makes me wonder what color you did and if only certain colors stain. So sorry about that!
If you mix the food coloring with the water first it shouldn’t stain. DIdn’t for us!
Thanks for the tip. My grandkids and I didn’t mix it with water first. We made neon purple and neon blue. the kids have beautifully colored hands. We’ve scrubbed a few times with Dawn and it did take most of it off but they still looked stained and they have school tomorrow. Their teachers will know their crazy Mimi( they know me as I’m a retired teacher) is at it again. lol
Hi Cheryl!! So sorry about that. I have a feeling that any dark color will do that so to prevent stained hands I would try lighter colors. We made purple but it only lasted on our hands for a few hours.
Please remember that Borax is TOXIC and have your children wash their hands when they’re done playing with it 🙂 we are gonna stick to regular ole salt dough!
Thanks for the reminder! 😀
Do you think it would be possible to substitute Borax with something non-toxic to achieve the same/similar consistency?
Just in case this might be of interest – the Material Safety Data Sheet – one of those official study lists – labels Borax as a health hazard rating of 1. This is the same rating given to salt and baking soda. It is non-carcenogenic, it does not penetrate the skin well, and it is not bio-accumulative. In short, from my personal experience and study, this would not cause any health hazard for Gak lovers. 🙂 Hope this helps.
Thank you for a fun idea for my kiddos that I had forgotten about. They will rise up and call you blessed. 🙂
Borax is no more toxic than salt or baking soda!!!!!!!! Just don’t ingest large quantities. Sometimes Borax is confused with boric acid, which is more toxic.
Oops! Just read above post!
We made this for my son’s mad scientist birthday party, but instead of Borax we used equal parts liquid starch, Elmers glue and water. It worked great and no worries about anything toxic.
Thank you so much for this! I just made it with my 3 year old but I must of done something wrong….it almost crumbles instead of stretches. Could it be because I used the clear Elmers? So I can do it right next time 🙂
Hi Tiffany!! So sorry about the gak. I have no idea why it crumbled. I have never used the clear Elmer’s and only the white and have never had issues. If you try it again with white and it works fine, let me know, so I can be sure to let other readers know about the problem too. 🙁
I’m getting some more glue at the store today, I also want to try the bouncy ball recipe! I’ll let you know if it worked out this time. My 3 year old loved to play with it anyway though 🙂
Hi Tiffany,
I have made this several times. It always turned out and then all of a sudden, each batch was crumbly. I realized that I was not mixing the glue and water before adding the borax. I was just dumping all of the ingrediants in. The trick is to mix the glue, water and food coloring WELL, before adding your 1/2 water with borax. Also make sure all of the water is very warm.
Good luck!
Found this via pinterest. I don’t even have kids and I’m totally making it this weekend. Thanks!
LOL!! Did you end up making it?! Even the hubby and I admit that we like playing with it. 😀
I did! I can’t stop playing. My wife thinks I’m crazy. I even packed some into a ballon and it made for a nice little stress ball. Popped it though. Will make another one soon 🙂
We just made purple Gak and my daughter is the happiest 8 year old ever!Seriously! :)Thank you so much for this!I love your blog! 🙂