Rehydrating Dried Hard Play-Doh

Have you ever pulled out Play-Doh and it was hard? Or the playdough, play dough, play-dough (there are so many ways to spell it.) was almost dried out and had salt crystals on it? 

The other day, I pulled out a Cranium game and the dough was so hard I couldn't even stick my finger in it. There was no liquid and it had salt crystals on it. 

I had a thought and filled the cup with water and put the lid back on and soaked it for about an hour. 

I came back, took the lid off and it looked like this second picture.

I put the lid back on and it looked like this third picture. I wish I had taken a picture of the salt crystals and how hard it was before I added water but I didn't think about writing this into a blog until I had already added water. 

I shook it a few more times and then I started poking at the softer mixture with my finger and breaking it into smaller pieces which I then let soak.

I then pulled the entire goo out into my hands and started working it. It was REALLY sticky for about ten minutes while I squished all the harder little pieces until they were all mixed in and soft. 

Once that was done, the dough started to not be as sticky as I kept working it and then it pulled all the goo off my hands and actually became like play-doh actually feels and it was as if I just bought it. 

I have thrown out probably at least fifty containers of play-doh over the years as we had every set imaginable for the girls as they would come out with new sets. We even have the Disney Princess set. 

I wish I had this brainstorm back then as I would have saved myself LOTS of money replacing the play-doh over the years. 

I actually made my own many times using cream-of-tartar but haven't done that since the girls were small. I thought about pulling it out and making more when my nieces came to visit a month or so ago and pulled out all the play-doh sets but figured by the time anyone came back to play, it would be all dried up again. 

Now, though, I think I may just add water to all the containers and let it help keep them moist until the next visit from the girls.

Yahoo for great brainstorm inspiration! I should make a video for youtube! Well, I just looked it up and there are many videos on making it as well as reviving it so perhaps I won't make a video but just know it worked well and the videos online do it just as I did.