Kids love to make homemade flubber slime! Our flubber slime is similar to our liquid starch slime recipe but it’s thicker, stretchier, and tougher. We love both slime and flubber for a fun science lesson or experiment. Make homemade flubber without borax powder in minutes! There are tons of tons of cool ways to play with science and STEM.
Make Flubber Without Borax Powder
What is flubber? Flubber is a super thick, super stretchy, super strong slime!
NOTE: This flubber recipe does not contain Borax powder. However, liquid starch does contain sodium borate which is part of the boron family. Please try one of our alternative recipes if you are allergic/sensitive to these ingredients. We have never experienced a skin reaction.
Which Slime Recipe To Use?
We have several basic slime recipes that can all be used for this flubber slime recipe. You decide which one works best for you depending on what slime activator you want to use. This allows for some flexibility depending on where you live in the world! Not everyone has access to the same ingredients!
Each of the basic slime recipes below includes full step-by-step photos, directions, and even videos to help you along the way!
💡 In the recipe below, we use our liquid starch slime recipe but with different quantities to create the thicker flubber slime.
Flubber Recipe
Try our traditional liquid starch slime recipe and compare the results. It uses similar ingredients in different amounts. Make sure to check out sand slime too!
SUPPLIES:
- 1 cup PVA Washable Glue White
- 1/2 Cup Water {room temperature}
- 1/2 Cup Liquid Starch
- Glitter or food coloring optional
How To Make Flubber:
STEP 1: Mix glue and water together in a container. Stir until it is well combined and a smooth consistency. Now is the perfect time to mix in color or glitter.
STEP 2: Next, add the liquid starch to the glue/water mixture. Start mixing with a spoon.
STEP 3: Switch to using your hands to combine the ingredients well. Keep mixing the flubber for a few minutes and kneading it well.
You can play with your flubber immediately or let it set up for about 15 mins or so.
How To Store Flubber
Store your flubber in a container with a lid, and it should keep for several weeks unless you have many hands playing with it. When it’s done, throw it away and make a new one with one of our many slime recipe ideas perfect for seasons and holiday!
This flubber recipe makes a huge pile! Squeeze it, squish it, pull it, test it’s super strength.
Fun Things To Do With Flubber
Homemade flubber, as well as other types of slime are great for building hand strength. You could add in some LEGO pieces for a treasure hunt slime or mini scrabble tiles for a letter hunt slime. They both make for interesting fine motor and literacy activities!
Or how about using our flubber or slime recipe to explore emotions! You can also make slime to go along with a favorite book!
Did you know that you can even blow flubber bubbles with this recipe?
Helpful Slime Making Resources
These are the best resources to look through before, during, and after making your awesome flubber slime! We talk more about slime science below too.
- Slime Activator List
- What is slime?
- What You Need To Make Slime
- Amazing Benefits Of Playing With Slime
- Best Slime Ideas
- How To Make Slime Less Sticky
- How To Get Slime Out Of Clothes And Hair
A Bit Of Slime Science
We always like to include a bit of homemade slime science around here! Slime is an excellent chemistry demonstration and kids love it too! Mixtures, substances, polymers, cross-linking, states of matter, elasticity, and viscosity are just a few of the science concepts that can be explored with homemade slime!
What’s slime science all about? The borate ions in the slime activators (sodium borate, borax powder, or boric acid) mix with the PVA (polyvinyl acetate) glue and forms this cool stretchy substance. This is called cross-linking!
The glue is a polymer and is made up of long, repeating, and identical strands or molecules. These molecules with flow past one another keeping the glue in a liquid state. Until…
You add the borate ions to the mixture, and it then starts to connect these long strands together. They begin to tangle and mix until the substance is less like the liquid you started with and thicker and rubbery like slime! Slime is a polymer.
Picture the difference between wet spaghetti and leftover spaghetti the next day. As the slime forms, the tangled molecule strands are much like the clump of spaghetti!
Is slime a liquid or solid?
We call it a non-Newtonian fluid because it’s a little bit of both! Experiment with making the slime more or less viscous with varying amounts of foam beads. Can you change the density?
More Fun Slime Recipes To Try
If your kids love playing with slime, why not try more favorite slime ideas…
Grab the Ultimate Slime Recipe Bundle
All the best homemade slime recipes in one place with plenty of fantastic extras!
- The Ultimate Slime Guide contains all the specialty recipes you or your kids want to make! You’ll find all the best tips, tricks, hints, and slime-y info in almost 100 pages!
- The Ultimate Slime Holiday Guide covers all the best holidays and seasons with special themes and slime-y projects!
- The Ultimate Borax-FREE and Taste-Safe Slime Guide shows you how to make all the best borax-free, taste-safe, and non-toxic slimes kids love, such as marshmallow slime. These recipes do not use chemical activators such as saline solution, liquid starch, or borax powder, making them truly borax-free.
- The Ultimate Slime Coloring Book is an easy-to-print coloring book kids will love! Color and design your favorite slimes!
- The Slime Starter Guide is a fact-filled information guide with everything you need to know to make the best slime ever!
mine was a big flop.!!!!
Tell me what happened or feel free to email me at @getmovingfitness@gmail.com for help!
How do you make it I am a big slime or flubbed fan
Just follow the directions in the post!
It’s difficult to find gallons of glue, I underestimated for my 6 classes after ordering online,and would like to try making my own glu. Does that work?
No in general homemade glue does not work and you should definitely not substitute other glues as the chemical reaction is unknown. I buy gallons of this glue off Amazon!
I followed the directions exactly and it’s a watery mess. My kids were disappointed! I even tried adding more corn starch……
Hi for some reason I can’t see your whole comment. However, it looks like you are using corn starch instead of liquid starch? Please feel free to email me at getmovingfitness@gmail.com and I can try to help you out!
Well you don’t want to use corn starch in place of liquid starch for this recipe.