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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.
Tried to make this but it turned out like a rubber ball. It wont stretch it breaks in to pieces when pulled. What did I do wrong? I did the instructions just as you said to do.. Help? 🙁
Did you use Elmer’s glue? And what kind of food coloring did you use? I haven’t had any problem before but wondering if the food coloring or brand of glue could make the difference. :/
Yes I used Elmer’s white glue and Betty Crocker food coloring, but it was the gel coloring. It mixed up good but suddenly it started getting very hard so I used my hands to finish mixing it, but during the mixing mine didn’t look like it the picture you posted. Your picture looks kind of smooth but mine will so hard it was sticking to the spoon. Also, there is a bunch of water left in the bowl, is that normal?
wasn’t the gel coloring…
I decided I didn’t have enough stocking stuffers but I had reached my holiday budget. So I was stoked when I found this recipe! I made it and it turned out fab!!!! I had such a blast making it that I ened up making 8 batches. I have 5 kids so I’ll have back up for the rest of xmas break. But I’d just like to thank you! This is a great idea. And with store bought gak costing $7 for .4 lbs it’s an awesome way to save money since it only cost about $2.50 a pound to make at home. Thank you soooo much! It’ll help the kids stay busy and me sane without going into debt!
Yay!! SO glad you made this and that it turned out. It really is such a fun and easy gift that the kids will LOVE. I hope it helps provide hours of entertainment over break. Merry Christmas!!
Did anyone have any issues with the “gak” staining hands after playing? I’m thinking I may have added a little to much dye.
Thanks so much! My kids have been begging for me to buy this! I will now be adding this to their stockings!
So glad you like it!! Your kids will LOVE it 😀
This is wonderful. I remember this from many years ago, but we just called it slimmed…….I love smearing my brother with it……I am ordering this for my grandson, but will have to use some for Uncle Bub…….
This did not work! I ended up with really chucky, not “Gak” like mess and purple hands.