Borax snowflakes, swirlies, letters, snowman, the possibilities are endless!

A friend of mine had a bunch of crystal snowflakes on her tree that I really liked. After asking her and looking up on pinterest, I found out they were made using Borax!! So after a trip to the grocery store, I went a little crazy. These things are so addicting!

After looking up a few different recipes, this is what I ended up doing.

Materials

Pipe cleaners of various colors

Borax

Water

A glass container of some sort

String

Pencil

Directions

1. Use pipe cleaners of various colors to make different shapes you would like to be turned into crystals. This is the fun and creative part. Snowflakes are a good place to start. I really liked the look of using colored pipe cleaners, they turned out prettier than the white pipe cleaners, I thought.

2. Boil (or as close to boiling as you can get) water. Pour into the glass containers. Add a few tablespoons of borax to the container, stir until it all dissolves. The amount of borax you add varies and doesn't really matter. I ended up re-using the solution several times, just adding a little more borax each time, so it was nowhere near an exact amount. Just add some till you think it's good and make sure it dissolves.

3. Tie string to your shapes and suspend in water, looping the string on a pencil to straddle the top of the glass.

4. Let sit undisturbed for 8-10 hours.

5. Pull out and let dry overnight.

6. Enjoy the awesomeness of your beautiful crystals!!

7. Repeat. Many, many times repeat. To re-use the solution, put the glass container in the microwave and heat until the formed crystals in the glass all dissolve again, heating in 2 minute intervals and stirring after each time. I usually added a few more tablespoons of borax each time, too.

This is the set-up I used to make all the ornaments.

Then here's how they all turned out!

A white snowflake.

A red crystal swirly. 

A red snowflake.

An A and an M for Madelyn and Audrey.

They look so pretty hanging on the tree with the lights shining behind and through them.

This is where I got creative. I really liked how the snowman turned out. I only bought red and white pipe cleaners, but with more colors you could make even more shapes.

I finally stopped making these, but I had the whole system going for about 4 days straight. So much fun!