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Crystal Snowflakes

The November Pinterest Challenge hosted by Erlene at Our Pinadventures has a winter/Christmas theme. I found a darling pin that made crystalized snowflakes from borax and coffee filters. They were so pretty and sparkly that I just had to give them a try.  You can find the original pin here.



The concept is that the borax, after creating a super solution, will crystalize onto a coffee filter snowflake after being soaked for around an hour.  Small crystals will appear and will grow as more time passes.  Let's see if that really works!

First, cut snowflakes from coffee filters.  Use the same technique you used to cut snowflakes as a child.  A good tutorial can be found here.

Bring 2 cups of water to a boil.  Add borax until the water no longer will dissolve it.  This is called a super solution.  You will see bits of borax clinging to the sides of your pot.



Place a snowflake on a plate or pie tin.  Ladle the hot solution on top of the snowflake, being sure to cover the snowflake.  Wait for an hour.

After an hour passes, check on the crystal growth.  If it is thick enough for you, gently peel the snowflake from the plate and lay in on the counter to dry thoroughly.  If you want more and bigger crystals, allow the snowflake to remain on the dish for another 30-60 minutes.  When the snowflakes are finished, remove the extra salt from the snowflake holes.

When the snowflakes are thoroughly dry, tie a string through one of the holes and hang them up. 

Variations:

You can use Epsom salts if borax isn't available.

You can add 1 drop of food coloring to give the snowflakes a pastel look.

Leave some thicker prongs on the snowflake so they can hold the weight of the salt.

For more Pinterest inspired projects from this month's Pinterest Challenge hosts, check out the links below ↓

My PinterventuresCookies Coffee and Crafts
Slices of LifeSew Crafty CrochetOur Sutton Place
Purple Hues and Me Sum of their Stories
Life Beyond Kitchen Mom Home Guide
Our Good Life Love My Little Cottage
Decorate & More with TipModern on Monticello

Now, let's see what the other hosts have created ⇓⇓

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Would you like to comment?

  1. Anonymous7:52 AM

    These are so pretty and what a pretty addition to your Christmas tree.

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  2. Oooh! We have used borax to make sparkly pipe cleaner ornaments and we have used coffee filters to make snowflakes but I never thought of combining those two crafts to get sparkly snowflakes. Pinned.

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  3. Super cute ornament! I love snowflakes!!!

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  4. This looks like a fun project to do with the grandsons. I wonder how delicate the snowflakes can be?

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  5. This sounds like such fun and would be great for kids to make too. It turned out very pretty.

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  6. This looks so interesting, my kids would have loved to try this like a Christmassy science experiment when they were little.

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