How to Make Squishies

Learning how to make squishies is SO COOL! These squeezable toys are all the rage, but did you know you can make them at home?! Use pourable foam to make your own slow rising squishy, and then decorate it with puffy fabric paint!

These squishies are so soft, and they have a great texture! This is a great craft for adults and kids to make together. Grown-ups should probably do all the mixing and pouring, and kids can take over when it comes time to decorate their homemade squishies.

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Helpful Tips:

1. Once opened, the materials in the Foam-It kit only last about 2 days. More on that below.
2. Be sure to read the safety instructions on the Foam-It kit! The manufacturer advises you to wear long sleeves, safety glasses, and rubber or vinyl gloves while handling the Foam-It liquids. Working in a room with good ventilation is also recommended.
3. There’s a bit of a learning curve when it comes to how much mixture to put into the silicone molds. Not enough, and the squishy won’t rise enough. Too much and the mold will overflow. It’s okay if your first pours aren’t perfect – just try again and you’ll figure out exactly how much to add!

What ingredients do you need to make squishies?

The squishies are made using a Foam-It! kit, which is pourable polyurethane foam. The mixture is poured into a silicone mold, and then it will expand and cure into a soft, flexible foam. Once the squishies are unmolded they’re painted with puffy fabric paint!

What molds work best to make a DIY squishy?

Silicone molds are a must for making squishies! We recommend simple molds like donut pans, cupcake liners, or a cake slice mold. Even plastic cups work well as molds (when the foam rises out of the cup it looks like a cupcake!).

Any molds with simple, clean lines will work the best, since the mixture rises like a baked good. We tried more detailed butterfly and dragon molds, but the smaller, detailed areas didn’t turn out well.

We don’t recommend using the mold for food after making squishies in it.

How many squishies can you make with this kit?

We made about 20 squishies and there is still a LOT of liquid left in the bottles. You could probably make between 80 and 100 squishies with this one kit, depending on how big the squishies are.

How long do the foam liquids last?

We would recommend using up the foam kit within a day or two of opening the bottles. The paperwork with the kit says that it has a “limited shelf life” and that it should be used “as soon as possible”.

We made different batches of squishies over a week and each batch got progressively worse. The first donuts are still incredibly soft and squishable, while the later batches either collapsed or didn’t stay soft.

What paint works best to decorate squishies?

Puffy fabric paint adds such a fun shine and texture to the donut squishies! You can also apply thin layers of acrylic paint to the squishies, but it will be matte and won’t have any dimension to it.

How else can I make squishies?

If you don’t want to buy a Foam-It kit, here are a few other simple ways you can make squishies at home:

1. Make a squishy stress ball from a balloon and fill it with foam makeup sponges.
2. To make paper squishies, cut out 2 layers of paper and apply tape to the outside. Leave an opening and fill it with old pillow stuffing before taping it off.
3. Carve a squishy from a memory foam block (an old memory foam pillow would be great for this!)

When you can make so many squishies from one kit, it becomes really inexpensive to make your own. It’s such a fun DIY craft, and painting the squishies would be a great birthday party activity!

Here’s even more fun craft ideas:

Orbeez Stress Ball

Shrinky Dink Keychain

Butter Slime

Our book Low-Mess Crafts for Kids is loaded with 72 fun and simple craft ideas for kids! The projects are fun, easy and most importantly low-mess, so the clean up is simple!