I love crafty experiments! And when I saw this cool crafty experiment of making borax crystal snowflakes from Delia Creates, I knew I had to put a sweet spin on it for Valentines Day. With just a few simple ingredients, it is actually quite easy and satisfying to make lovely crystal ornaments. The first ingredient you will need is something called borax.
But what is Borax?
Borax is a common household chemical or substance. A box of Borax can be found in your local grocery store in the cleaning aisle and is most commonly used as a laundry booster or household cleaner.
What happens when you combine boiling water and Borax?
When mixed together and left overnight, or for a number of hours as the water cools, it creates crystals.
But how does Borax and water create crystals?
Borax is actually naturally in crystal form, and dissolves in boiling water. Hot water can hold more borax than cold water, so the hot water actually becomes saturated with Borax. So when the water cools, the Borax returns to its natural state leaving large crystal shapes.
All you need to make your own crystals are borax, empty mason or recycled jars, boiling water, pipe cleaners, popsicle sticks, yarn, and food coloring (optional).
First create shapes with pipe cleaners. I started with white pipe cleaners and my tween and I made a couple hearts, a snowflake, and a corkscrew shape.
Next, attach each pipe cleaner shape onto a popsicle stick with some yarn. This is how your shapes will hang into the borax solution.
Then you will want to fill your jars with hot boiling water and add about 1/3 cup of borax into it. Stir to dissolve. Add food coloring if desired to create colored crystals.
Finally, place your hanging shapes in the jar solutions and let set overnight. In the morning, crystals will have formed all around your pipe cleaners, and on the bottom of the jar. Remove and place on paper towels to dry.
I really loved how they turned out. The pastel colored crystal shapes were beautiful, but I knew I wanted to try and get a deeper red heart for Valentines Day. I created second batch using red pipe cleaners.
I think I like both? The purity of the white crystals is so pretty paired with a pretty pink ribbon, and the boldness of the red screams Valentines Day.
To finalize the Borax crystal decorations, I cut each shape off of the popsicle stick, and attached thin ribbon and bakers twine onto the top of each shape on the yarn. I trimmed off the excess yarn that wasn’t needed, and added a pretty ribbon bow at the top of each heart or shape. LOVELY!
These were so simple to make, my daughter and I couldn’t stop making more shapes to try.
These look really pretty hanging on a window as a window decoration, with the sun shining through the crystals.
We also found that the longer we left them in the jars, the more crystals formed as the water evaporated. And the more food dye we used, the deeper the color of the crystal. We changed over our puffy paint snowflakes to sparkly crystal hearts. = )
And, you will get crystallization on the bottom of the jars, but just add some hot water back into them, and I used a knife to just break them up a little bit, and they came right out.
Try this fun craft with your kids. After the homework is done, grab some pipe cleaners, jars, and borax and make your own homemade borax crystal ornaments.
Happy crafting!
If you liked this post, and want more, you can subscribe to be on our mailing list here.
Latest posts by Pauline Molinari (see all)
- Minute to Win It – Tween Challenge - June 18, 2013
- Float Above Your Own Emerald Crystal Garden inspired by OZ the Great and Powerful - June 17, 2013
- Father’s Day Pancakes with a Twist - June 13, 2013
- Message in a Bottle Homemade Graduation Gift Idea - June 12, 2013
These hearts are so pretty! We definitely need to try this. Thanks for sharing the idea!
I remember these Candycanes that we always put on our Christmas tree growing up but I never have seen them again. I am going to try doing this and make the candy canes. They always looked so pretty with the Christmas lights on the tree. By any chance do you know what the life span of the crystals are and how should they be stored? Thank you Mary
Any guidelines for safe handling of borax, especially with kids? I always thought it was pretty nasty stuff, am I mistaken?
Ah, thank you, Dr. Google:
http://www.crunchybetty.com/getting-to-the-bottom-of-borax-is-it-safe-or-not
Thanks for looking up the research, and finding that borax is safe to craft with.
Popped over from Pinterest. I love this idea as cute Valentines gifts for classes. Do you know the life span? Do the crystals fall off if they are bumped? Just curious if they would be “sturdy” enough to take them to school to give out in a 1st grade class? We always do homemade valentines and this one looks fun and cute!
This would be a super cute classroom project. The crystals actually hold up pretty well. My hearts still look fabulous in our family room window. A couple of crystals will fall off, but for the most part they still very much intact and beautifully sparkly. = )
I believe you can also do this with sugar & water to make rock candy! I’m just not sure of the sugar to water ratio but I’m sure you can find that with a little research!
Great suggestion Linda!
These make great shamrocks,green 3leaf covers for St Patties Day. I like all of yours well done.
I’m making these tonight! If all goes well, I’m going to make a bunch for my son’s class valentines! Thanks for sharing!
sounds fabulous!
This is so great! I know that my daughter will really enjoy creating this with me after school. We’d love for you to share on our After School LInk UP. Here’s the link. http://www.theeducatorsspinonit.blogspot.com/search/label/Afterschool%20Express
Hey what a fabulous idea!!I live in the UK and we don’t have access to this borax detergent.is there any other substitute you could use instead of using borax? Really want to make these!
Thanks xx
Hi Danielle,
I don’t know of an exact replacement for Borax. Has anyone else tried a different compound and successfully gotten crystals? Comment if you have.
How long do these take to form? If I did this project this weekend, would they be ready for Valentines Day?
Hi Natalie,
The crystals will form overnight. My daughter and I made them before she went to bed one night, and the next morning they were beautiful crystals. = )
Wow! I’ve never seen this before! What a neat idea, with great results…I can’t wait to give it a try!
Have fun! My daughter and I loved making them!
We put these together last night and when I got up this morning nothing had happened. So disappointed. What did I do wrong?!?! How do you mess up boiling water and borax?!
Hi Beth, thanks for commenting. The one thing I can think of that might have prevented the crystals from forming is the ratio to water and borax. I know the crystals occur when there is an oversaturation of borax to water. I’m not sure what size jar you used, but I would maybe try adding more borax to the mixture ans seeing if that works. Sorry to hear it didn’t work for you the first time.
I am going to make these tomorrow for my great granddaughter to take to school for Vlentines day. Thank you
These look like fun! My question is, can I use clear plastic disposable cups? We dont have any mason jars around, but we have plenty of clear cups!
Thank you!
I haven’t tried a plastic cup, but I am assuming it should work, as long as when you pour in the hot water it doesn’t melt the plastic cup. Have fun!
Just tried these in our Preschool classrooms and they out great-definitely need to make sure you have enough Borax. My question is can the mixture be used over again (reheat the water/Borax mixture) or do you have start fresh? We have lots of kids here so it seemed wasteful to dump out the mixture once the heart was made.
Fabulous! Sounds like a great classroom activity. I have never tried to reuse the liquid, but I bet you are right, I’m thinking it would work. The whole principle of why it works has to do the oversaturation of the borax to water. The hot water dissolves it and when it cools, the crystals form. Let me know if you try it!
Do you know approximately the ratio of hot boiling water to Borax knowing that saturation plays a major role to the success of these crystals.
Hi Fran,
The general guideline is 3 tablespoons to 1 cup of water, but I have noticed that for some people this ratio wasn’t high enough and the crystals did not form. But when they used more Borax, it worked beautifully. Hope that helps.
1/3 cup of borax to what size jar?
I used pint sized jars.
Thanks Pauline,
I’m going to try this with a grade three class.. They are going to love it as a Science experiment.
Fran
Hi! I loved this idea so much that I have decided to use it at my wedding! I actually figured out a way to do a bunch of them in one container and also cake toppers. I sited your blog as the source for all info. Thanks for the great idea! I can’t wait to show you how they turn out for my wedding!
http://www.kakiewedding.com/2013/03/adorable-affordable-wedding-cake-topper.html#
I’m the Editorial Assistant for Fun Family Crafts and I wanted to let you know that we have featured your project! You can see it here:
http://funfamilycrafts.com/borax-crystal-hearts/
If you have other kid friendly crafts, we’d love it if you would submit them. If you would like to display a featured button on your site, you can grab one from the right side bar of your post above. Thanks for a wonderful project idea!
I love this craft idea. So pretty and easy. I like that you can do many different shapes, one for every holiday.
can you make jewelry with these crystals?
Hi Catherine,
I would suggest these crystals more for room decoration rather than jewelry. After time (about a month) the crystals don’t keep there same shine and luster.
que es borax vivo en Mexico, tu idea me parece fabulosa
Hi, we used vases instead. One exploded because of the boiling water so we will definitely use a mason jar next time. In the morning, ours didn’t have any crystals. Have you ever had it not work? Do you think it is because it wasn’t a jar specifically?
Sorry you had to learn the hard way with the hot water in a thin glass vase. I’m sure it wasn’t so much the magic of a mason jar, but just that the mason jar glass is so thick, it is used to hot liquids since they are normally used for canning purposes.
About the crystals, it sounds like the concentration of water to borax wasn’t enough. Try it again with more borax this time.
Hope that helps!