Dish Soap Bubbles

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Have you ever met a kid that was not utterly delighted and mesmerized by floating bubbles?

photo credit: Nathalie Laure

Have you ever wanted to make your own bubble solution? You know…the stuff that those humongous bubbles are made of.

Homemade dish soap bubbles are a great way to entertain your kids for little or no money. They're easy to make. Easy to use and can be taken just about anywhere.

Homemade bubble solution is a very sensitive concoction. It requires soft water, so your best bet is to buy a jug of distilled water, unless you know for sure that your tap water doesn’t have a lot of iron in it.

Distilled water doesn't cost any more than regular drinking water and can be found right next to it on most store shelves.

photo credit: Nebbish1

Dawn Dish Liquid works best for most soap bubbles recipes. If you don’t have Dawn, use Joy Liquid.

You will also need some glycerin. Glycerin is available at most drug stores and is also fairly inexpensive.

If you can’t find glycerin use white Karo syrup. It's in the pancake aisle at most grocery stores.

For the best dish soap bubbles make your solution a day before you plan to use it and store in a screw top container to avoid spills.

Clean mayo jars and salad dressing jars are good for storing your homemade bubbles.

This soap bubbles recipe makes a lot of solution because it makes great bubbles so kids use it up fast.

• 1 cup Dawn Liquid (The original blue liquid)
• 10 cups distilled water - If you have soft tap water you can give it a try and see if it will work.
• ¼ cup of Glycerin OR the white Karo Syrup

Glycerin makes larger, longer lasting bubbles, but there is nothing wrong with using the Karo Syrup and making "Sweet Bubbles" instead. You still get lots of bubbles, they just don't linger quite as long.

Mix everything together gently so you don’t make foam.

Once it's mixed, pour it into a shallow pan big enough for you to dip your bubble wand. Aluminum pie pans work pretty well for this.

These Giant Neon Bubble Wands work really well with this solution.

You can also purchase some inexpensive craft wire (18 gauge or thicker) and make wire loops then bend them into funky shapes to see what kinds of strange bubble shapes your kids can make.

These dish soap bubbles are colored with Tempra paint, which is inexpensive, safe and washable.

You will need:

• 1 cup Liquid Tempra Paints
• 2 Tbsp Dish Soap
• 1 Tbsp Liquid Starch

Blow these bubbles over white craft paper. When the bubbles land on the paper they pop and leave interesting paint patterns. Make a few batches in different colors and see what kind of art your kids can bubble up.

It's also fun to chase and swat at these bubbles with craft paper. Beware though, these bubbles can be messy so keep it fun for you too and use paint bubbles outside. :)

Break out the dish soap bubbles at your next Barbeque, or birthday party. Take a bottle of bubbles with you the next time you visit the shore and watch the bubbles take off in the wind.

Wherever you decide to blow bubbles there are sure to be lots of giggles too.