Borax Crystal Ornaments

Today is another wonderful Thankful Thursday Design Team Day over at Crazy About Cricut.  The whole reason for Thankful Thursday is to encourage crafters to get their kids (or the kids in their lives) and craft away!! I absolutely LOVE crafting with my boys... we always have a terrific time!!

The theme this week is:

A Christmas Project

We made these terrific Borax Crystal Ornaments.  They are very easy to make so 

enjoy experimenting with different shapes and colors.  Each one costs pennies, so they make wonderful class projects, gift toppers or a quick winter afternoon project.

Another thing I like is that they are surprisingly sturdy so little ones can easily hold them without being afraid that they will break. For the scientific explanation of what is happening here visit this link. *Adult supervision is needed when using borax.


Supplies:
borax (in the laundry section of the grocery store)
cup and 1/2 cup measures
tall and thinnish glass jar
chenille stems / pipe cleaners (colored or white)
pencil or stick or similar
string for hanging

Directions:
Make shapes with chenille stems,  hook one end for attaching the string. Make sure the shapes will fit within the mouth of the jar. My boys liked making snowflakes, candy canes, wreaths and curly ques too.

 Make a super-saturated solution of borax: 1/2 cup  of borax to 4 cups of hot water and
 stir until borax is dissolved (the water may still be cloudy, but it will work).

 

 Attach a string to the chenille stem ornament and hang in the jar of borax solution from a pencil laying across the top of the jar.  Make sure the shape is not touching the sides or bottom of your jar.

Place the jar in a cool location over night, the crystals will grow as the water cools. You can almost watch them grow... so cool!

Remove crystal ornaments from the jar and let dry on
some rags or paper towels.

Aren't they beautiful?!

The picture is a little dark, but you get the idea. All these ornaments are using colored pipe cleaners.

This one is using a white pipe cleaner with just a few drops of green food coloring in the water.

And here is a candy cane. This one is my son, Owen's favorite.

We even made one for Valentine's Day! :)

Note: Overnight soaking will give you very thickly crystallized ornaments. If you want some of the color of the pipe cleaner to show through, leave in the solution for less time. If you want, you can spray your finished ornament with acrylic sealer or clear spray paint to keep the crystals from falling off over the years.

Please jump over to Crazy About Cricut and take a look at what Jenny and the other Thankful Thursday Designers have come up with for the  "Christmas " theme.

If you have the time, we'd love for you to play along... don't forget to link up your Christmas project over at Crazy About Cricut or the post on the Thankful Thursday Challenge FB page.