How to Grow Borax Crystals – Valentine’s Day Heart
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Borax makes it easy for your kids to experiment and grow crystals of their very own! Let’s experiment for Valentine’s Day and make heart crystals. Make shimmering crystallized icicle ornaments with pipe cleaners, Borax, and water!
How to Grow Borax Crystals – Valentine’s Day Heart
Gather your kids around the table for this fun exploration into science at home. You can sit down and teach your littles about How to Grow Borax Crystal Valentine’s Day Hearts. No need to run out and buy mommy that special Valentine’s Day gift when they can make it at home with you.
Borax is a common laundry product (also known as sodium borate) that whitens, brightens, and freshens clothes. I also like to use it when cleaning around my home, especially when I need to Degrease my Kitchen Cabinets.
But when mixed with water in a concentrated solution, it can form beautiful crystals on craft pipe cleaners or any textured surface. When Borax is mixed and dissolved in water for several hours as the water cools, it begins to create crystals.
If leftover night, you will see your crystals begin to grow into a thicker heart. Here is a FUN FACT. Hot water can hold more borax than cold water. When the hot water becomes saturated with borax and cools back down, the Borax returns to its natural state, leaving crystals behind.
If you would like to learn about the science behind growing crystals, read this article.
What You Will Need For Borax Crystals – Valentine’s Day Heart
- Plastic Container (Don’t use glass as it may shatter when added to boiling water)
- Boiling Water (one or more cups, depending on your container size)
- Pipe Cleaners molded into hearts
- Shop Stick, Pencil, or something to dangle your crystals from until completely formed
- Borax Powder (3 tablespoons per cup of hot water, I used 2 cups of water in my container)
- Red Food Dye
How To Make Your Borax Crystals – Valentine’s Day Heart
STEP ONE: Begin by boiling your water. Keep in mind for this project you will need 3 tablespoons of Borax per 1 cup of water.
STEP TWO: While waiting for it to boil, take your pipe cleaners and start forming your heart shapes. Form your heart from the center of your pipe cleaner. Leaving extra length to wrap onto your chopstick, pencil, or stick. If you make a larger heart crystal, you can yarn your hearts instead of the extra pipe cleaner.
STEP THREE: Get your container ready. I knew before starting that my container could hold 2 cups’ worth of water. In my container, I pre-measured my borax (6 tbsp or 3 tbsp per cup of water).
Once my water was boiling, I added it to my container and then my pre-measured amount of borax. You probably do not need to pre-measure. I am just OCD.
STEP FOUR: Next, stir your borax and water mixture until dissolved, then add in the coloring of your choice. We did red. The dark you go, the darker your crystals will turn out. I would go as dark as possible as borax doesn’t absorb food coloring that well.
STEP FIVE: Now you are ready to make crystals. Put your pipe cleaner shape into your container, with the chopstick or pencil lying over the opening. You don’t want the bottom of your shape touching the container. Keep it just above the bottom.
It takes time to grow
STEP SIX: Let soak for at least 6 hours. It is okay to check on them (we did). Plus, it is fun to watch the progress. For best results, we let ours soak overnight.
As you can see, even though our Borax mixture was deep dark red, our Borax Crystal Hearts turned out pink. Just remember that if you end up adding lighter colors, the crystals will turn out very light pastel.
Now it is time to decorate your house for Valentine’s Day with your NEW Borax Crystal Valentine’s Day Hearts.
If you made these borax heart crystals, we would love to hear all about it. We get so excited when we learn that you have chosen to make one of our crafts featured on Inspiring Savings. Please leave us a comment below.
Other FUN & Frugal Craft Ideas
Edible Play Dough – Easy, FUN & Yummy!
UP-Cycle Advertising Magnets: For A Kid-Friendly Craft!
Valentine’s Day Love Bug Craft For Kids
Making this craft project at home is not only fun, but can save you money. No need to go out and purchase a Heart Crystal Making Craft kit when you can gather your supplies from home and make it yourself.
Do we need a container for each heart or con we put more then one in a container
Hi Amelia,
You can do multiple hearts in one container. But the more you do the less crystals you will have on your pipe cleaners. I didn’t notice a difference when I kept two to a container.
Great idea for Valentine’s Day! Thanks for sharing!
It will be a great gift! Thanks for sharing your idea.
Do you know how the Borax hearts do over time? Can they be stored for next year?
Hi Linda,
I actually have some borax crystals that my kids made a few years ago and they are doing great. The color has faded some. They have held up well.
Thanks for posting. They came out cute. Surprised at the difference in color. Deep dark red ends up being a pink color. I will need to remember that.
It really is amazing the lack of color absorption.
So adorable.. I am adding borax to my shopping list. The kids are going to love this
Wow! This is something that looks like a lot of fun to do and beautiful heart at the end!