DIY Festive Play Dough Play Mats

It’s that time of year, where we like to huddle round the kitchen table on the dark winter afternoons, and get our arts and crafts on. Both my boys really love play dough. Oskar recently recreated some Ancient Egyptian canopic jars, that he had been learning about in school, out of play dough! And Mr Fox loves to roll out his play dough – or ‘Knete’ as he calls it (a German term) – and cut out shapes with cookie cutters. So when the lovely folk at Addoplay sent us a bumper pack of Ready Steady Dough Jumbo Pots, and challenged us to get creative with it, I decided to put together a set of festive play dough mats.

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Disclosure: We were sent two free packs of Ready Steady Dough Jumbo Pots to review, but all images, words and opinions that follow are our own!

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The idea is really simple, and you can easily make these at home yourself. You just need some A4 paper, a thick black pen, and either a laminator or some of those plastic pouches you get in office supplies. Just make sure they are the smooth kind and not textured, otherwise the play dough doesn’t stick to them so well. Draw some shapes or pictures – but just the outlines – in black pen, then laminate them or pop them in a plastic pouch. Now get your kids to decorate them with play dough!

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The play dough play mats are basically like colouring in sheets, but instead of pens or crayons, you use the play dough to fill in the lines, add details etc. And once you are done, it all wipes clean and you can use them over again. I made a Christmas tree, an angel, a gingerbread man, and Santa.

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The fewer details you add in, the more a child can use their imagination to fill them in, so except for Santa, whom I felt needed a couple details, I just did the bare outlines for the other three. Mr Fox really enjoyed using his new play dough play mats – though his Santa looks a lot like a Smurf, lol!

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You can also combine the mats with other play dough tools, e.g. we our play dough cutter to cut it up in to smaller pieces, and the rolling pin and cookie cutters to cut out shapes to add to the mats, such as a star to put on top of the Christmas tree:

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The Ready Steady Dough Jumbo Pots come in packs of 4, either in a classic blue, red, yellow and white set, or a purple, green, yellow and orange set. It also says on the side of the pack that you can blend the colours to make new colours, which of course I put to the test:

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The blending worked really well! It only took a couple of minutes of rubbing the dough back and forth between my fingers, for the colours to fully blend. I know the red + blue looks kind of dark brown or black in the photos, but that’s just the light. It’s actually a dark purple!

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The Jumbo Pots sets are suitable for ages 3+. They retail at £4.00, which I think is great value for money, and they are currently on sale via TheToyShop.com at 50% off ! Even better, I am delighted to be able to offer my readers the chance to win one pack of the blue/red/yellow/white Jumbi Pots, courtesy of Addoplay. You can enter via the Rafflecopter entry form below. UK entries only. The giveaway runs until 15th December.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Giveaway Terms & Conditions:

  • This giveaway is open from midnight on Tuesday 5th December to midnight on Friday 15th December 2017, UK time.
  • UK entries only – by entering, you are confirming that you have a UK address.
  • There will be 1 prize and 1 winner.
    The prize is one Ready Steady Dough Jumbo Pots Pack of 4, RRP £4, in the colours blue, red, yellow & white.
  • The winner will be selected from all valid entries.
  • The winners will be contacted and asked to respond within 7 days. If a response is not received within 7 days, an alternative winner will be selected at random from all remaining valid entries.
  • The prize will be sent out by Addoplay.
  • Email addresses will not be shared with any third parties.
  • This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Instagram or Facebook.

Comments: 12

  • reply
    6 December 2017

    This is such a lovely idea, I may have to try it out with my students at school too.

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    6 December 2017

    Such a lovely festive craft. I’m not too crafty myself but it looks like good fun x

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    6 December 2017

    That’s brilliant ! Play Dough sure has come a long way since I was a kid. I love the idea of the playmats , I find my lad hasn’t the direction yet to come up with his own ideas of what to make with play dough, these mats would definitely help with the imagination !

  • reply
    6 December 2017

    What a fantastic idea and set ! Wish my daughter was younger as i could get away with having a bit of play myself

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    6 December 2017

    Oh those sheets are great for this kind of thing. I’m stealing that idea!

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    Hayley F

    6 December 2017

    Such a great idea. My nephew would love this x

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    7 December 2017

    This looks great! Will be giving it a go

  • reply
    7 December 2017

    We love play dough mats! They’re great fun. I really like the idea of colour blending, a great way to teach it! x

  • reply
    7 December 2017

    All three of my children absolutely LOVED playdough when they were little. TBH, it still comes out every now and again and my youngest is eight!

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    Leila Benhamida

    10 December 2017

    Great for creativity. Really great for the festive season. My daughter will enjoy this

  • reply
    10 December 2017

    Wow I’ve not ever thought of using themed mats for playdough before. What a great idea! I really want to try this with my little one.

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