Q&A for How to Make Play Dough without Cream of Tartar

Baking powder is a combination of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) and cream of tartar. It should work as a substitute for cream of tartar, but you may need to play around with the amount to get the texture you want.

Lemon juice and white vinegar can both act as substitutes for cream of tartar. Lemon juice will give your playdough a more pleasant scent than vinegar.

The cream of tartar helps give the playdough a stiffer, stretchier texture, as well as a bit of added volume. It also acts as a natural preservative and stabilizer, helping your dough last a bit longer before it becomes crumbly or starts to go bad.

No, you may also use a marker.

Yes. You could use any vegetable-based oil.

You should add conditioner when it starts to get hard.

Yes, you can tweak the recipes to fit you but it may take a few attempts to get it to work. It will take some trial and error.

Use a package of kool-aid. It adds scent and color to the play dough without staining your hands and it doesn't affect the mixture.

Instead of corn syrup, you could use vegetable or cooking oil to make your play dough.

You can put a little bit of hair conditioner in, and it will make it smooth and it will smell nicer.

Use a flat, clean surface, like a marble countertop, and cover it in newspaper.

The recipe calls for one pound of baking soda, not to be confused with baking powder.

It will last a pretty long time if properly stored. If you add the coloring while you are making it, it will spread very easily and quickly.

You can mix laundry detergent, water, glue, and corn starch and let it harden.

Try pancake mix as a substitute for flour. Make sure you put the same amount of mix as you would have flour. It might take a few tries to get right, though.

No. It is only really made for playing with and fiddling, because if you put it into a certain shape, it will just spread out.

Adding glitter is optional.

Yes, it will work well.

Yes, you can use baking powder instead. The consistency may be slightly different, but it should still work fine.

No. If it dries out, it will get harder, but it shouldn't crack.

You can buy them at virtually any grocery store or any store that sells grocery items (i.e. Walmart, Target, Aldi's, etc.).

Add more of the salt and flour mixture. Basically, treat it like activator in slime.

Just add a little more flour and knead on a dry, floured surface.

Yes, I've used peanut oil and it works well. It smells really good too.

This probably happened because the inside of the container got moist or wet somehow, leading to the development of bacteria and mold.

No shampoo and conditioner are completely different things. Shampoo is also a lot more liquid than conditioner is, so the consistency will not be correct.

Yes, cocoa powder could replace flour. It is the same texture so it will not change the feeling of the play dough. The only thing it will change is the color, but you can add food coloring.

Just follow the instructions in this article.

Yes, that should work fine.

You can, but it will ruin the texture.