Sometimes it’s good to let the kids play in a way that let’s them squish and smash, or stir and dump, or just be a bit messy in general. Fun, hands-on activities of this type are a great way to bring out their creativity. I loved these kinds of activities as a child and I truly think it’s what put me on a path even to this day to want to stay creative and “make my own”.

And that’s why I love doing these kinds of projects with the grandkids too. I love to see that creative side come out and the simple joy that comes from squishy sensory playtime. We’ve made Moon Sand, and Play Snow, and most recently we made ourselves some glitter slime. I wish homemade glitter slime had been around when my kids were little!

It turned out to be super simple to make your own glitter slime and it was something that even my 3 year old grandson could help with. All that was needed was a bottle of Elmers Glitter Glue, some baking soda and a little bit of contact lens solution.

Different Methods For Making Homemade Slime

Before we started this project I did a little research on how to make your own slime. There seemed to be three basic methods (all of which begin with glue).  To get your glue to turn into slime for playing, you can either add borax, liquid laundry starch, or contact lens solution.

I’ve used borax in different homemade cleaners over the years (mainly in my homemade laundry soap). But I know from experience that every time I’ve tried to dissolve borax in a homemade cleaner that I wanted to use in a spray bottle, it never seems to go very well. I almost always end up with some remaining clumps. I also had some reservations about borax being in a mixture that the little ones have their hands on, and therefore I ruled out that option.

The liquid laundry starch probably makes a nice slime, but some of my research confirmed what I suspected . . . that this is a product that’s not always easy to find in the stores. I also didn’t want to have to buy a large container of the stuff, just for the few teaspoons or tablespoons I might need for a slime recipe.

So I settled on the method that uses contact lens solution. If you’re not a contact lens wearer and don’t have this product in your house, you should be able to buy a 2 oz trial size that doesn’t cost much and will still be enough to make 3 or 4 batches of slime. I used the Renu brand.

One thing to keep in mind is that any contact lens solution that you use in this recipe should have “Boric Acid” in its ingredient list. Apparently that has some of the same chemical make-up as borax, which is why it works in the homemade slime recipes.  It sounds like a super strange ingredient for contact lens solution, and yet, there it is.

Making Our Own Glitter Slime

So when it came time to make our own slime, we not only opted for the contact lens method, we opted for the glitter method! This is easy and fun to do with the Elmers Glitter Glue and it comes in several fun colors too.  I also used the recipe on the Elmers site as my starting point, but converted the add-in ingredients to teaspoons which I think is a bit easier and allows you to add the ingredients more slowly in smaller increments. Once again my motto always is “you can always add more in, but you can’t take it back out.”

Begin by emptying the contents of the 6 oz bottle of glitter glue into a mixing bowl. This is a step the little ones will love to help with.

Next, we stirred in 1½ teaspoons of baking soda, and again, little ones can help because there’s not much change to the glue yet in this step.

Finally, you will add in 3 teaspoons of the contact solution. As soon as you start mixing it you will see the glitter glue begin to form a ball. At this point you will want to stop stirring with a utensil and begin kneading and mixing with your hands instead. You will probably see some of the contact solution still in the bottom of the mixing bowl.  Every so often, I would squish the glitter glue slime ball back into the remaining solution in the bowl as I was kneading, until most of it seemed to  be incorporated into the ball of slime.

See, the grownups get some squishy sensory fun in this project too!

If your glitter slime still seems sticky as this point, just squirt in a tiny bit more contact solution, until you are happy with the consistency.

And then it’s ready for the kids to start stretching and playing with it! Again, it’s fun to see what creative ideas they come up with. My grandson had the most fun making lots of “worms” in different shapes and sizes. It kept him busy a long time!

And finally, I was not paid by Elmers Glue to write any of this, it was just the brand I decided to use. It was easy to find in my local Meijer store and came in pretty colors. We made some in red, blue, and green.