A Silly Putty Story

I decided to be a "fun mom" and got NCH (age 8 1/2) his first Silly Putty for his stocking this Christmas. From childhood, I remember putting it on the funny pages and then stretching out the faces...fun stuff! Anyway, he was surprised to get it and it kept him amused for awhile. I had forgotten all about it...until this morning. CAH (known for being rather messy, a tad disheveled and rather accident-prone) informed me: "Someone put silly putty in my bed and it's. Um. Kind of. All over. My. Um. Blankets." I didn't even want to know, so I just said, "Oh, okay. I'll deal with it later." She noted that it was also all over her jammies she was wearing. I sighed and told her to put them on the washer and to get dressed for school. (I was just relieved she didn't get any in her hair!)
An hour later, the older two were off to school and NJH was at preschool. KBH helped me gather laundry and that's when I remembered: the silly putty mess! I quickly got on the computer and began googling tried and true remedies for silly putty removal. I found a variety of suggestions, from soaking the clothing in vinegar to putting the clothing in the freezer to spraying the clothing with WD-40 to dabbing the clothing with rubbing alcohol. I put a query out on Facebook and found the ice method and the alcohol-dabbing method to be the most popular. Once I realized the extent of the silly putty situation, I put the jammies and undies in the freezer. I took the sheet and held my breath...then I dabbed the spots on the sheet with a cotton ball soaked in rubbing alcohol. Next, I used a butter knife to scrape the area. Happily, the silly putty did come right off! I wiped the knife in between scrapes and kept at the tedious task. Finally, all the silly putty was off the sheet, but a dark pink stain remained. I decided to wash the sheet in warm water...and it all came out!!! I checked on the clothing in the freezer and although the silly putty had frozen, it did not come off nearly as nicely as the alcohol-soaked silly putty did. I decided to use the alcohol method on the frozen jammies and undies, as well as on the (beautiful, new) quilt and CAH's "favorite snuggie blanket" (now a thin little scrap.) Great news: after an hour of dabbing and scraping, the silly putty came off of everything! (Except for the jammie bottoms, which were COVERED, and I ended up tossing.) After a wash and dry, everything became clean again!
Moral of the story: if you are a fun silly-putty-buying mom, know how to get the silly putty off of any and all surfaces!