Slime/Gak (and cleaning it off of surfaces)

This was an interesting learning experience on a few fronts. First we learned how to make something cool.  Then we learned how to clean that cool thing off of surfaces, the ceiling for example.

Slime/Gak

5 oz (1/3c + 1/4c + 1 tbsp) of white school glue
1/4 - 3/4 cup liquid laundry starch
food color
glitter (if desired)

1. Pour glue into a bowl and mix in food color until desired color is reached. Add in glitter.
2. Pour in small amounts of liquid starch at a time and stir well. Keep adding starch until it is firm enough to pull out and knead.
3. Lightly coat baking sheet or plastic container with room to knead it with a small amount of liquid starch. Pour slime into container and knead, adding in more starch until desired consistency is reached.

Starting off I didn't know that they made laundry starch in a non aerosol industrial sized bottle! Now, I do. I found this bottle of STA-FLO in the laundry detergent aisle at Wal-Mart for $2.50. Each bottle I had of glue was originally 7.? ounces (I can't remember how much the .something was) and I had 1 and slightly less than half a bottles. Hence why I figured out the measurements above. Supposedly, you can get a 5 oz bottle of glue but I didn't find any at the store. That red bin is full of most of my glitter. I like glitter.

 

The kids had a bit of trouble pouring the glue from the measuring cups so I assisted with spooning out the remaining. Don't mind too much if there is still a bunch of glue stuck in there, get out as much as you can and move on. If you're anything like me this will be difficult as I have a special spatula I use to make sure every single bit I can get out of a bowl gets out. Spoons don't work as well as rubber spatulas. 

There was a LOT of stirring going on. First trying to get the color dark enough and to get it consistently through the glue. Brianna wanted hers REALLY blue, as she was saying here.

 

 

Gabee's was red with green, orange, and white glitter. Brianna wanted blue slime with red and purple glitter. It took a bit of glitter to get the desired effect. We found out courser glitter works better, not the really large kind more of a medium sized glitter as the finer glitters didn't show up as well. We used probably a tablespoon or more glitter for each cup of slime.

 

I helped the kids by pouring in the starch while they stirred. I poured in 1/4 cup and then 1/8 cup increments after that until we got to a point where it was holding together and hard to stir with a spoon. Then I made my first mistake. I over estimate how well it was holding together and over estimated the non stick abilities of wax paper.

 

 

After realizing my mistake I quickly tried to get it back up but we lost some slime and made a huge mess trying to get it off the paper. It stuck to the paper and we ended up ripping it a lot.

 

 

I grabbed an 8x8 non stick pan and a plastic container from IKEA and added a bit of liquid starch before putting the slime on the surfaces of the containers. This worked SOOO much better. It barely stuck to the containers and what did stick was much easier to get off. They kneaded it more and more adding in about a tablespoon more liquid starch at a time. Watch your kids though. Gabee started saying his arm was burning once he was touching the liquid starch directly. I had him go was his arms well with soap and water and I resumed kneading his slime.

 

 

After it was all kneaded and to a good consistency Gabee had no problem playing with it. No more burning. Brianna's was a bit stiffer and less sticky than Gabee's. Both were good but when it comes to the consistency of the slime the more liquid starch you add the stiffer it will get. Imagine that laundry starch making things stiff. Whodathunkit?

 

They played with it for quite with it. I'd say it held the most attention of the projects I have done this summer so far.

 

This is a close up of the glitter mixed into Brianna's slime, Gabee's was hard to get a picture of the right color or the glitter because the lighting in my dining room is not so great and the glitter was light.

 

 

Then came the second mistake. I was unware I needed to tell the kids not to throw the slime and while I was out of sight they were apparently throwing it in the living room and when I reentered the room I found Brianna on a chair trying to reach the slime that was still stuck to the ceiling. Since she couldn't reach it, she was instead trying to catch the small bead of slime falling to the floor. Thankfully she caught them all. I took my metal spatula for making cupcakes and got off as much as I could.

Then using a damp sponge with a little bit of soap I started slowly wiping the slime. After a few minutes it started to roll up and come off onto the sponge. With a bit more scrubbing it eventually all came off.

It did leave a slight blue tint in the generally area of cleaning, but wiping it down again with water while the ceiling was still wet got rid of that. It has now dried and you can't tell we ever had blue slime stuck on the ceiling.

Gabee also got some on the rug. I picked out as much as I could and then scrubbed really hard with the sponge and most of it came out but the white stripes in our rug are still tinted slightly pinkish red. Try to avoid getting it on cloth surfaces all together.

Grand Total = $5 to make 2 batches for me. I already had food color and glitter though so the price will increase if you are starting with nothing.