Cupcake Themed Play Dough Jar Kits for Kids

We made these play dough jars for our two birthday girls earlier this month and they were a hit! Check out the supplies and details below.

Brinley and Vaila took these play dough jars in to school to hand out to their friends. I always love a non-food item and hope some of the kids liked playing with this. We definitely had fun making them!

Here’s What You Need

• Jars

• Mini rolling pins

• Straws

• Mini cupcake liners

• Vase fillers or jems

• Pom poms

• Food picks

• Twine

• Pipe cleaners

• Mini cookie cutters

• Birthday candles

• Play dough- make your own using the recipe here, just leave out the pumpkin pie spice.

• Labels- Get your customizable label here!

Set up

10 minutes +

1. I let the kids assist with every aspect of this birthday themed play dough kit, so things definitely took a lot longer than if I were to do this alone.

2. Make your play dough and let it cool. Each child got to pick their own colors and we went for a chocolate and vanilla cupcake base with different colored “frosting”.

3. Prep your mix in items. I’ll give you a rundown of items we included below, but after everything was ready, we spread it all out on a table.

4. Add play dough and mix in items into the jars.

5. Add a label if desired.

6. Top with a mini rolling pin for an extra dose of cuteness. I was honestly too tired to figure out how to tie the rolling pins on, so they got stuck on with a tape ball!

Clean Up

1-2 minutes

1. Wash your play dough making bowls.

2. Put away any extra mix in supplies. We saved ours for our own play time.

Here is what we added into the jars:

• cut up straws

• 1 candle

• 1 mini cookie cutter

• a handful of jems or vase filler- this was an easy way for each child to customize their jars while still keeping the process pretty simple for me

• a few pom poms

• 1 food pick

• 1 pipe cleaner corkscrew

• 1 mini cupcake liner

• 2 play dough colors- one for the cupcake “base” and one for the “frosting”

Then we added a label and a mini rolling pin to the outside of the jar. I used a hole punch and threaded some twine through to attached the label and used tape for the rolling pin.

Brinley and Vaila both got to pick what color play dough they wanted to make, but of course they both picked pink and teal! Brinley also got to add purple to hers because she has more kids in her class. This play dough recipe is seriously so good! Very smooth and easy to make. We had just a handful of most colors left over, so the kids got to play with some fresh play dough and were loving it.

With their birthdays exactly 1 week apart, I’m always looking for something manageable to me if we are making favors for both of them. And as a family with some food allergies, we always appreciate a non-edible favor or gift. This fit the bill perfectly and we got quite a few compliments on them. We even saved a few jars for cousins who came over for the birthday party and they also loved making birthday cupcakes!

These play dough kits make great party or class favors, but were also fun for the kids to play with at home! Easy to make if you have a little bit of time and definitely a winner in my book.

I hope you keep this idea in mind the next time you are looking for an easy DIY favor or gift.

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