Playdough Tools & Accessories You Didn’t Know You Needed

Playdough has long been a favorite among children, offering a hands-on way to boost sensory and motor skills. However, the novelty can quickly wear off. Enter an array of fun tools and accessories designed to reignite their interest and creativity!

Simple tools and accessories can rekindle their enthusiasm. In this article, we will introduce fun and useful playdough tools and explain how to use them. These accessories ensure that children are not only having fun but also gaining valuable knowledge. This achievement can be highly rewarding for parents.

Materials for Playdough Tools and Accessories

At present, there are three main materials for playdough tools and accessories: wood, plastic, and silicone. They each have their own advantages and disadvantages, so for different tools, we will choose different materials.

Wood

Wood is loved for its soft touch and classic colors and patterns. Additionally, we believe most wooden tools are safe and non-toxic due to their natural properties.

However, shaping wood is difficult, and the finished product also needs to be polished to remove burrs. Although wooden tools look beautiful, they are expensive.

In addition, some components in wood may cause allergies for sensitive skin.

Plastic

Nowadays, injection molding technology has matured, and many toy accessories are made of plastic. Its cost is much lower than wood and silicone.

Although people are worried about the toxicity and environmental pollution of plastic, this is actually a thing of the past. Engineers have long developed degradable plastics that are harmless to the environment and the human body. On the other hand, EN71 and ASTM F963 do not allow toys to contain toxic ingredients.

The weakness of plastic is UV exposure. When you expose plastic tools to sunlight, they will fade, become brittle and age.

Silicone

Silicone is a new type of material which is soft and easy to shape. We can make it into various shapes of tools and accessories. More importantly, silicone is a human-friendly material which is also used to make contact lenses and kitchen utensils.

Making playdough tools with silicone is indeed a good idea. It is light, comfortable to touch, colorful, non-toxic and environmentally friendly. In addition, the surface of silicone is hydrophobic and easy to clean.

However, because of the complex manufacturing process of silicone, its cost is higher than plastic and wood.

To sum up, we mainly use plastic to make playdough tools and accessories. Of course, we can also help you customize wood and silicone ones, but their prices will be higher.

Rolling Pins and Beyond

Rolling pin is a common kitchen tool, people use it to make bread and pies. In fact, in the playdough games, rolling pin is also one of the necessary tools. Moreover, to make them appealing and easy for children to use, our rolling pin tools have some unique features:

Textured Rolling Pins for Unique Designs

We have engraved patterns on the rolling pin so that when it is rolled over the playdough it will imprint textures on it. These patterns are not the only ones, you can design and customize them to make unique rolling pins.

Mini Rolling Pins for Tiny Hands

Normal rolling pins are too big for children’s hands and not easy to use, so we developed mini ones specifically for them.

Some mini rolling pins are similar to paint rollers. Children only need to hold the handle part and roll the playdough flat or print patterns on it.

Cutters and Molds: Shaping Fun

The second type of playdough tools are cutters and molds, which children use to make shapes. Compared to air dry clay accessories, playdough cutters and molds are much more exciting.

Themed Cookie Cutters for Playdough

When making cookies, we use special shaped cutters, such as bears, flowers, rectangles, circles, etc. Children like these shapes, so themed cookie cutters are also common tools in playdough sets.

These cutters are carefully designed to cut playdough easily without hurting. More importantly, playdough will not stick to the cutters.

3D Molds for Dynamic Creations

In addition to making flat cookie shapes, some 3D molds allow children to create interesting statues or models. These accessories are also simple and convenient to use. Children only need to put the playdough into the mold and press it to get beautiful crafts.

Stamps and Imprint Tools

Besides playing, parents also want their children to learn knowledge. Stamps and imprint tools are suitable. They can print different symbols on playdough, so parents can teach their children to recognize them.

Alphabet and Number Stamps for Educational Play

Letter and number stamps are popular tools and accessories that allow children to learn words and count while playing. This is a simple educational game that is suitable for preschool kids and has an enlightening effect.

Nature and Animal Stamps for Imaginative Scenes

Another type of stamp and imprint shape is nature and animals, such as flowers, trees, cats, dogs, birds, etc. When children imprint these patterns on dough, they are not only learning to observe details, but also training their brain’s imagination.

Fine Motor Skill Enhancers

Sometimes, we use playdough to make some delicate works. However, it is difficult for adults to do it with just our hands, let alone children. So, we need the auxiliary tools:

Safety Scissors for Playdough Cutting

Safety scissors are specially invented for children. They can easily cut play dough without hurting the skin. 

Additionally, safety scissors are smaller in size and suitable for small hands. Children can use safety scissors to cut playdough into special shapes, such as leaves, clouds, grass, etc.

Tweezers and Pick-Up Tools for Precision

For details smaller than a finger, tweezers and pick-up tools are used. These tools help children easily pick up and assemble small pieces of playdough. For example, tweezers are useful when creating small details like animal eyes.

When working with details, our muscles may shake involuntarily, making it difficult to keep steady. However, with practice, our hands can become precise enough to perform more delicate tasks, such as writing and drawing.

Innovative Playdough Extruders

Sometimes, it’s hard to cut or trim certain shapes, like pasta. In these cases, an extruder is what you need, and it’s best suited for making noodles and other foods.

Creating Spirals and Strings

The extruder looks similar to a syringe and is generally composed of two parts.

One is a cylindrical container with holes at the outlet. Depending on the shape of these holes, we can make dough into different noodles – round, square, star-shaped, etc. The other part is a pusher. When we put the play dough into the cylindrical container, we can squeeze it out of the holes by pressing the pusher.

Some extruders only have one larger hole, so the extruded playdough is not noodles, but a fluffy cylinder. We usually use this extruder to make ice cream or cakes because of its spiral shape.

Household Items Repurposed

Many everyday household items can be ingeniously repurposed for play dough fun with a little creativity. We only need to use our brains a little to make them useful.

Kitchen Utensils for Playdough Play

In addition to the rolling pin, tools such as spatulas, spoons, and brushes in the kitchen can also help us shape the playdough. For example, we can use a brush to make stripes, use a spoon to press arcs, and so on.

Everyday Objects as Creative Tools

Some small objects in daily life can also become good creative tools, such as buttons, toothpicks, rulers, bottle caps, etc. You can press buttons on the playdough to decorate the eyes, use a ruler to cut straight edges, use a bottle cap to make a circle, etc.

Although these items may not be as specialized as the tools and accessories mentioned above, they can still be surprisingly useful.

Specialty Playdough Accessories

It is troublesome to buy tools and accessories separately. Therefore, we put the needed tools and accessories into the playdough set.

Multi-Tool Playdough Sets

In the toy sets, in addition to colorful dough, there are also multi-tools including most of the types mentioned above. Usually, we will pack them in storage boxes or transparent bags. When you need them, just take them out and use them.

Themed Playdough Playsets

Themed playdough sets contain all the needed tools. Most importantly, they usually have unique designs, and you will see cute toy shapes such as penguins, piglets, dinosaurs, snowmen, etc.

Themed sets make luxurious, delightful gifts that are sure to bring joy to any child.

Organizing Your Playdough Toolkit

Playdough tools and accessories are small and numerous, and if they are not organized, they will quickly become a mess. So, how should we organize them?

Storage Solutions for Easy Access

Storing the playdough tools and accessories in a box is ideal, as it confines them to one space. On the other hand, the tools placed in the storage box will also make it easier for children to find them.

If you can’t find a suitable storage box, you can put them in the packaging box.

Maintaining and Cleaning Tools

Besides storage, the maintenance and cleaning of tools are also important. For example, we must not drop or bend them hard, because they may break. And we should clean them in time if the tools are stained with playdough or other contaminants, to avoid the growth of bacteria.

Conclusion

In short, the playdough tools and accessories we mentioned in this article all help children create crafts. Whether it is a rolling pin, alphabet stamp, safety scissors or a toy set of multi-tools, they are all used to shape playdough.

We can customize playdough tools and accessories with wood, plastic and silicone. They are all safe and non-toxic, but wood and silicone are expensive so people use them less.

Playdough toy sets contain all the tools and accessories needed, whether it is playing alone or in a group, it is the best choice. In addition, theme playsets are great holiday or birthday gifts for kids.