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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.
Made this gak. Although my girls hands are blue and pink from the food coloring. How do I prevent this from happening again?
Hmmm..I wish I knew. My kids get colorful hands when playing, but they can play for hours with it, so I never mind. It usually comes clean after washing.
Have you used Elmer Glitter Glue using this recipe? And if so did it turn out?
I have not! I add glitter, though. Here is the link for the glitter gak…https://lilluna.com/homemade-glitter-gak/. Hope that helps or if you try glitter glue, I’d love to know what you think 🙂 Thanks!
Hooray for GAK!! My daughter made some for the kids at her school. They loved it but I think she loved it more! LOL
That was so nice of her & I bet they loved it & her for it! Thanks for letting me know!
Ohhhh my boys would LOVE this!!! What a fun surprise for them to make ???? Thanks for sharing!
You are welcome! My kids love it..it’s a lot of fun! I hope they love it!
Borax can burn the kids hands 2nd degree burns it was on the news the other day.
Those children were allergic to borax. Unless your children have a borax allergy, they will be fine. 🙂 Hope that this helps 🙂
I used to make play dough for my son but this is much easier since it doesn’t require cooking. Easier clean up too. Thank you for the detailed and lively instructions!
Yes, much easier than play dough! Thank you for sharing!
Mine was to gelatinous? It broke apart into little tiny pieces everywhere. Any ideas?
Oh, no..I’m sorry! I’m trying to think how that could have happened. You followed the recipe exactly?
Wow you have a house full of love and fun. I had 8 kids in 9 years Including 2 sets of twins. I loved being a mom. I love your ideas. I now look for fun ideas for grandkids. I have 33 in all but I will only have 4 here for the next 2 weeks. We will be doing the gak for sure ????. And we are doing a treasure island day. Starting with the old movie and making treasures maps. If you would be interested in some fun ways I coped with 8 kids email anytime with questions or I can just list some ideas. Thanks for your fun blog. Debi
You sound so fun!! Thanks so much for letting me know 🙂 I definitely will!!
Hi Lil’ i’m living in Italy. Could you tell me which kind of material is Borax? Elmer glue is a normal glue for school, isn’t is? Thakyou for share. I want to try this now!
Borax is a powder material. People use it in many ways. You should be able to find it by cleaning supplies. And, yes, Elmer glue is the normal glue for school 🙂 Hope that helps and hope you can find the borax. Thank you!!
Hi!
My kid would love that, really, but in my country I cant find borax. How can I change?
I’ve heard you could use liquid laundry detergent, but I haven’t personally tried. If you give it a try, let me know how it comes out! Good luck!