Three years ago I decided to make our family a batch of homemade bubbles after discovering how easy it was to make these at home. Our homemade bubbles, literally, attracted the neighbors due to their sheer volume and and staying power that they had. Ever since that day, making the first batch of bubbles just screams, “IT’S SUMMER!” to me.
The trick to creating the world’s greatest bubbles is the addition of a little glycerin to every batch. You can find the glycerin over by the first aid supplies or you can ask the pharmacist if they have a bottle of it behind the counter. It is a small bottle of liquid that helps give your bubbles real staying power. After reading up on the science of it, I discovered that glycerin added to the soap solution slows evaporation so the soap film stays intact longer. I can’t argue with the science behind it and neither will you after you make these.
This year we put our bubbles in an iced tea container that I found over in the summer housewares, to help make pouring and filling our bubbles easier. The very first day, my daughter refilled it forty-five times then tipped the entire thing over and dumped all the bubbles out. You have been warned. Pouring bubbles out of a dispenser like this allows for unlimited refills and that spout happens to be irresistible.
We made pipe cleaner bubble wands together and spelled out our name and phrases with wooden beads I found in the craft department. Such a simple idea, but endless possibilities for shapes and designs.
Our school ends on Thursday and we can’t wait to start sharing our summer with you! We are looking forward to our carefree summer days and sharing those with you through the blog.
Have you joined in on our 100 days of summer fun? I am still adding daily to our 2012 board ideas, inspiration, and even ways to craft out that summer list as a family.
If you are on Instagram, you can join in on the fun by taking pictures and sharing all of your summer adventures through there. Let’s use the hashtag #100summerdays. Unfortunately, the hashtag that sounds like the event has been taken by Yelp so this is the best I could do! My username is momadvice and I am happy to have you follow our adventures and follow along with yours!
By tagging your photos, it will make it easy to find each other in the group and share the projects we are tackling together. You can add the tags to your caption or you can add them as a comment later. In either scenario, the tag will pull it into our summer group.
Looking forward to spending the summer with you, friends!
- 1 gallon water
- ⅔ cup dishwashing soap
- 2-3 tbsp. glycerin
- Mix all of the ingredients in a container.
We use the same ingredients except for glycerin. Where can I get glycerin? I’m going to make this for the kids. They love bubbles.
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Amy Reply:
June 5th, 2012 at 6:54 am
It will be over in the First Aid aisle or behind the pharmacist counter. I just ask the pharmacist and they can usually point me in the right direction. Good luck!
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Mike Reply:
June 5th, 2012 at 9:26 am
Thanks, Amy..
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I LOVE bubbles! Our local closeout store has large bubble wands (sold at Target last year) for $0.59 so I grabbed a bunch. They make great bubbles! I’ll be following your recipe for even better ones. I’ve tried to make wands with pipe cleaners before but they just absorb the soap and don’t work for us. Perhaps the glycerin will help?
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Amy Reply:
June 5th, 2012 at 6:53 am
The Target wands are awesome and my kids absolutely love those. I stockpiled the last time they were in the dollar section. The pipe cleaner wands, to me, are just a fun craft to create with them. I definitely think the Target wands rock the socks off all other wands
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What type of dish soap works the best? I’m excited to try these with all my little children I work with and my own kids!
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This was terrible. Measured and followed exactly, but only made 2-3 bubbles at a time. Still searching for a good homemade bubble recipe.
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Amy Reply:
April 27th, 2013 at 1:03 pm
That is very strange! Maybe let the solution set overnight or try a different dish soap! These are truly our favorite bubbles and I’ve never had them not bubble!
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My kids LOVE bubbles and we were very excited to try this! It also did not work for us. I’ve tried adding more soap and I only get 1 bubble maybe 2. I’ve added so far 3/4 of a cup more dish soap… any suggestions??
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Amy Reply:
May 15th, 2013 at 12:41 pm
What type of dish soap are you using? Some of the newer soaps don’t have a lot of suds in them and that is what makes these bubble up. I use the cheap stuff from ALDI and it works like a charm. I also find that letting the solution sit one night really brings the bubbles together. Here is a picture of my little guy and the bubbles that we got with the recipe. That is using the cheap dish soap, not the newer versions that are low-sudsing: https://plus.google.com/photos/106035324014300256674/albums/5211004421689982337/5211004612077657682?banner=pwa
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