Create some sparkly glitter slime using a few common household ingredients.
It’s super easy and kid-friendly!

It’s been a long winter and it’s time to have some FUN! Slime is one of the coolest chemistry experiments and is a great after-school or weekend activity. I have been wanting to make slime with my granddaughter, but the traditional recipes with cleaning chemicals made me nervous. Then, we discovered a simple glitter slime recipe that uses completely safe materials and doesn’t require any messy food coloring. Check out the ultimate three-ingredient glitter slime recipe and tips below. This recipe creates amazing slime. 

It’s Science! It’s Sensory Play! It’s Great Fun All!

When purchasing your saline solution check the ingredients and make sure that it contains a mix of sodium borate and boric acid. Contact solution and saline solution are not the same product. Although contact solution has the ingredients to make slime, you may find that slime made with it will become watery overnight.

We purchased all our ingredients at Dollar General. The box of baking soda was only 50¢ and the leftovers can be used for cooking or other DIY projects like Bath Bombs, Kinetic Sand, or Play Dough. The saline solution was $3.25. However, there is enough saline solution to make this recipe at least 30 times. We wanted to make different colors so we bought the bonus pack which had three bottles Elmer’s glitter glue and a free bottle of clear glue for $9. At a cost of $3 to $4 per batch, this DIY Glitter Slime is less expensive than purchasing premade slime and you get the added bonus of having lots of fun making it.

Note: At first we tried the Dollar General Imagine brand of glitter glue and it does NOT work. It wasn’t a total waste. We had some of the Aleene’s Original Tacky Glue that we had on hand and added it to the “soup” to make glitter puff slime.

NO-MESS GLITTER SLIME

This no-mess slime recipe from Elmer’s is a great STEM-friendly chemistry experiment that you can enjoy making rain or shine.

Ingredients:
1/2 tbsp of baking soda
1 to 1¼ tbsp of contact lens solution
6 fl oz Elmer’s glitter glue

Instructions:
1. Pour out the entire contents of the glitter glue into a bowl.
2. Add 1/2 tablespoon baking soda. Using a spoon, mix thoroughly.
3. Add 1 tablespoon of the saline solution.
4. Mix with a spoon until the mixture gets harder to mix and slime begins to form.
5. Take the slime out and begin kneading with both of your hands.
6. If needed, add up to ¼ tbsp more of the solution to make the slime less sticky. Remember a little goes a long way. The more of the solution you add the thicker the slime becomes. We found that 1 tablespoon was sufficient for the white glue while the glitter glue needed 1 tablespoon plus a few more drops, as the one we did with 1 ¼ tablespoons was quite. thick.

Tips:

• If the slime is too stringy, add baking soda
• If the slime is too sticky, add contact solution
• If the slime is too watery or too stiff, add glue

We made white slime with regular Elmer’s glue and green, pink, purple, and red glitter slime with a variety of glitter glues.

The science behind the craze. Slime is a non-Newtonian fluid. This means that it ignores Newton’s law of viscosity by flowing under certain conditions yet stiffening when compressed quickly. The amazing thing about non-newtonian fluids is that they are neither a solid or a liquid, you can pick slime up like a solid but it will slide through your fingers like a liquid. Slime is made from the chemical reaction between two main ingredients; polyvinyl alcohol and borate ion. Polyvinyl alcohol can be found in simple PVA glue. Borate ion is created when bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) is mixed with the saline solution.

Thanks to a chemical reaction called an endothermic reaction when Polyvinyl alcohol comes in contact with the borate ion it begins to thicken and turns into a viscous, gooey mass. Endothermic reactions are those which absorb energy from the surroundings and result in a net decrease in temperature. Evidence of the endothermic reaction is when the slime goes cold.

“Slime also does not have its own shape so it can change to fit whatever container it is in. Yet, because of its elasticity, it can be bounced like a ball. Using these examples you can demonstrate how the viscosity of non-newtonian fluids change and teach the properties of liquids and solids.” – Curiscope

You can also try tugging sharply on the slime which will cause the slime to break, yet if you gently pull it the slime will stretch out. When this slime is pulled slowly, it becomes thin and flows easily. Pulling the slime quickly makes it thicker and it can snap because the chemical bonds in the slime break. 

Slime: Is It a Solid, Liquid, or Both?
Would you say the slime is a liquid or is it more like a solid?
It can feel as hard as a solid when squeezed in your fist, but as soon as you release your grip, it will ooze out through your fingers like a thick liquid.

 

The fun doesn’t have to end. Make your own bouncy balls with this fun preschool craft!

Here’s two different ways you can make homemade bouncy balls.

For both you will need two cups or bowls for mixing in, stir sticks, and measuring spoons.

For the first one you will also need these items to make:

• 2 Tablespoons Hot Water
• 1/2 Teaspoon Borax
• 1 Tablespoon Elmer’s Glue
• 1 Teaspoon Cornstarch
• Food Coloring (optional)

1. Pour the water and borax in the first cup and mix until dissolved. 
2. Pour the glue, cornstarch, and food coloring into the second cup and mix.
3. Next, pour the borax mixture into the cup with the glue mixture. Let sit for 15 minutes and then stir.
4. When the mixture becomes difficult to stir, scoop it out and gently work it in your hands until it is no longer sticky.
5. Then, just roll between your hands to form a ball. The more you roll it the smoother it will become.

Just like with the slime, if you use glitter glue be sure to use Elmer’s Glitter Glue, other brands just don’t work. There’s something about the Elmer’s glue that is different than the generic glues.

The second one for super bouncy balls comes from Life’s Carousel and uses just 3 ingredients.

• 1/2 Cup of Warm Water
• 1 Tablespoon of Borax
• 1 to 2 Tablespoon of Clear Elmer’s Glue (or Elmer’s Glitter Glue)

1. In cup one stir together the water and borax, until it is completely dissolved (add more water if it doesn’t all dissolve).
2. Next slowly add your desired amount of glue into the bowl of borax solution. The more glue you use, the bigger the ball!
3. As soon as the glue hits the borax solution it will start to harden. Gently squeeze and squish the glue ball until it is no longer sticky.
4. Remove from the borax solution and roll between your hands to make it ball shaped. Continue to roll it between your hands until it is as smooth as you like.

She gives a word of warning that these super bouncy balls are basically very very thick slime. So if you leave them for any length of time they will slowly go flat and make a disc. But it’s very simple to just roll them in your hand to make them ball shaped again. Be sure to check out her site, there’s cool stuff help you go from chaos to calm there.