Slime Made Easy Everything you need to know

Slime Made Easy Everything you need to know to become a slime expert By Brenda Priddy of Schooling Active Monkeys

Slime Making Basics Making quality slime is all about the proper ratios. If your ratios are off, your slime will turn out weird. For our favorite slime recipe, laundry starch slime, the ideal ratio is 1 -1 -1 with water, starch, and glue. Once you get the basics down, you can experiment with adding more or less of an ingredient to change up your slime texture, but in general, you’ll want to follow the basic guide. Our favorite slime recipe uses clear glue, liquid laundry starch, and water. This is the easiest way to make slime, and what I recommend for beginners. Brands matter. I will not make slime without Elmer’s glue (either clear or white). Other brands just don’t work as well, and my theory is that they don’t contain as much PVA (polyvinal alcohol, or [CH 2 CH(OH) if you want to get technical). Skimp on this ingredient and your slime will be a disaster. You’ll see 101 different recipes for slime online, and we’ve tried almost all of them. Only our favorites made it into this guide. If you plan to make slime often, get the large gallon size of Elmer’s clear glue and Elmer’s white glue. It will save you TONS of money. I’ve found slime will keep for about 3 days, but after that, it gets sticky and gross. Schooling. Active. Monkeys. com

Fun Slime Additives Try adding these ingredients to your slime for more fun! • Glitter • Small plastic toys • Dinosaurs • Legos • Confetti • Rocks • Pattern blocks • Beads • Mini-erasers • Water beads • Tapioca pearls • Foam pellets • Sand • Tonic water (in place of regular water to make it glow under a black light) • Slime mats (sold in the Schooling Active Monkeys store) Schooling. Active. Monkeys. com

Slime Troubleshooting Use this handy guide to solve common slime problems • My slime is too stiff This likely means you’ve added too much thickener (most common with the Borax recipe). You can try adding a bit more glue or water to thin it out, but it’s harder to rescue hard slime than runny slime. • My slime is too runny You didn’t add enough thickener. Try adding more starch or borax water to the slime. • My slime won’t mix You probably didn’t stir your ingredients together well enough. Keep stirring, and if that doesn’t work, start again but this time, make sure your glue and water are mixed perfectly before adding the starch or borax. • Stuff keeps falling out of my slime This is just going to happen if you are using a slimy additive like rocks or water beads. Play on a large tray and embrace it. • My slime is too stringy You either haven’t mixed it enough, or you may have not put in enough thickener. Leave it for 5 minutes, then come back and check the texture. If it’s still stringy, add a bit more starch and keep kneading until it comes together. • My slime is clumpy You probably added too much thickener. Try adding a bit more water or glue and keep mixing. But if that doesn’t work, you might need to start over. Schooling. Active. Monkeys. com

Slime Recipe 1: Laundry Starch Slime Liquid laundry starch slime is our favorite slime recipe. It’s smooth, stretchy, and turns out perfectly almost every time. How to Make Laundry Starch Slime 1 bottle of Elmer’s clear glue ½ a cup of water ½ a cup of liquid laundry starch (Sta-flo brand) Food coloring Mix the glue with the water and the food coloring. Pour the starch into the glue mixture and stir. Keep stirring until slime forms. Take out the slime and stretch it between your fingers until it has a shine and stretches without making strings. It can take a few minutes before it reaches this stage. Schooling. Active. Monkeys. com

Troubleshooting Laundry Starch Slime The biggest issues we’ve had with this slime is when you add too much starch. That makes the slime have a weird slimy or clumpy texture. You can save it by rinsing it under water for about 10 seconds. Your slime might also be too stringy. You can save this by sitting it in more starch for about 5 minutes, then rinsing off any excess starch under cool water. Stretching the slime out before play also helps strengthen the bonds and make the texture mailable, but not sticky. Different temperatures and humidity levels can affect how much kneading the slime needs before play. Schooling. Active. Monkeys. com

Slime Recipe 2: Borax Slime Borax slime is the original slime recipe. It was used for over 20 years to make quality slime. It’s not our favorite recipe though, because it breaks when stretched quickly. How to Make Borax Slime 1 bottle of Elmer’s clear glue 2 teaspoons of borax powder ½ a cup of water Food coloring Mix two teaspoons of borax powder into a cup of water. Set aside. In a separate bowl, mix the water and glue, and any food coloring or additives you want to use. Add the glue mixture to the borax powder mixture and mix until slime forms. Take out the slime and stretch it between your hands. There will be water leftover. When the slime is solid and no longer stringy, it is finished. Schooling. Active. Monkeys. com

Troubleshooting Borax Slime Adding water to borax slime is the most important step. Otherwise, it turns the glue into a solid lump, more like crumbly play dough. Watch out for glue pockets in this version. Borax tends to slime up the outside of the glue, but if you don’t check for glue pockets, when you play with the glue, you’ll end up with sticky glue spots on your fingers. We always use a fork to look for lumps before taking it out of the borax mixture. Schooling. Active. Monkeys. com

Slime Recipe 3: Fluffy Slime When you’re tired of stretchy slime, try fluffy slime! This recipe is our all-time most popular slime recipe. How to Make Fluffy Slime 2 bottles of Elmer’s white glue 1 cup of Liquid laundry starch (Sta-flo brand) Food coloring 1 cup of white shaving cream Pour the glue into a bowl. Add food coloring. Stir in your shaving cream. Don’t mix too much or you will lose some fluffy texture. Add half the laundry starch, then stir. Slime will start to form, but it will be stringy. Add the second half of the starch and keep mixing until the slime turns smooth and fluffy. It can take about 5 minutes of mixing to get to the perfect fluffy texture. Schooling. Active. Monkeys. com

Troubleshooting Fluffy Slime Fluffy slime is one of the most persnickety slime recipes. It also has the highest potential to create an allergic reaction on your skin. I don’t advise making fluffy slime several days in a row, as it can cause your hands to dry out, itch, and turn a bit red. One of the biggest problems that you’ll see with fluffy slime is that it will be stringy. This usually means you’ve added too much shaving cream or not enough laundry starch. You can usually save it by letting it sit for about 10 minutes in a pool of starch. Next, rinse out any extra starch under cool water for about 10 seconds and keep stretching it until it turns soft and flexible. Another common problem is shaving cream residue on your fingers. You can solve this by running the slime under water for about 10 seconds. Don’t wash out too much or you’ll lose some of the fluffy texture. Schooling. Active. Monkeys. com

Slime Recipe 4: Magnesium Slime Other than baking soda slime, which doesn’t really “slime” the same way, this magnesium slime recipe is the ONLY truly borax free slime recipe that I know of. If you can’t get borax or are sensitive to it, use this recipe. How to Make Magnesium Slime 1/2 a cup magnesium chloride flakes 1/2 a cup of water 1 5 -ounce bottle of Elmer’s clear glue Food coloring Dissolve your magnesium chloride flakes into your water. Add food coloring. Pour the glue into the mixture. Mix until slime forms. There will be some water residue left over, which you will want to save to coat your fingers as you play with the slime. The more you handle this slime, the stickier it will become, but if you dip your fingers into the water mixture, you will be able to handle it with ease again. Schooling. Active. Monkeys. com

Troubleshooting Magnesium Slime The biggest issue with this slime is using the right form of magnesium. You might be able to get it to work with Epsom salt, but we had the best results when using magnesium chloride flakes. As with all slime, ratios matter. If you don’t have enough magnesium liquid, the slime will be too sticky. Regardless, magnesium slime tends to be a bit sticker than other slime recipes. You will want to use Elmer’s clear glue only for this recipe. White glue doesn’t work. Magnesium slime is probably the most finicky slime of all, so you may need to play around a bit with the ratios to get it to work properly. This makes magnesium slime a true science experiment! Schooling. Active. Monkeys. com

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