Crystallized Heart
Pipe Cleaner
Borax
This Valentines day craft project shows you how to make a crystallized Valentines day heart perfect for that handmade gift.
Take a pipe cleaner (chenille stem) bend into a hear shape. Leave approximately 3 inches on the bottom.
Mix borax soap in very hot water (50-50 mixture) use a large container.
Put a stick over the opening of your container. Attach the pipe cleaner to it making sure that the pipe cleaner does not touch the sides and bottom of your container.
It should be suspended freely.
Pour your mixture into the container and completely cover the pipe cleaner. You can leave your pipe cleaner in the solution for 2 hours or over night.
The longer you leave it in, the more crystallized it will be.
Take your heart out of the solution and gently dry it off.
You can attach your creation to a card or use it as an embellishemt on your other projects
This project is not suitable for young children due to the use of borax unless used in a supervised classroom.
By Shellie Wilson. Shellie is the chief creative editor for Craftbits.
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You can get borax in the laundry section. It is also a great cub scout project for "scientific" badge that can be turned into a Valentine
We have made many of these and have even added dye to the water- very fun. It should be clearer though that the pipe cleaner shape- heart or whatever- is hanging from the stick and completely submerged but not touching the bottom of the container- we use a glass cookie jar- so we can keep an eye on the crystalization process. It has always taken at least 24 hours for ours to be finished- and then I suspend them in the air from a drying rack, for a bit until they are completely dry. Store them in tissue paper- and a box- they will keep beautifully for years.
what is Borax ?!
COOL CRAFT!!!!!!!!!!!!!
COOL CRAFT!!!!!!
where do you get borax? And what's borax?
i dont understand the directions.
This is a great project for any season- you can make any shape or sculpture you want, any color you want. white pipecleaners look clear in the end. Just make sure you don't use glittery pipecleaners - they turn it to gel and it's NOT PRETTY!
This sounds very intriguing. Thanks for sharing.
LLMcD
Why always play it safe? Just try it out yourself with a heart shape or something and see what happens?
you need to add a picture of it or it dose not help and you do not know whast it wuill look like
fun
Not for all ages to put in the borax...Sorry only stuff I know works...but any age can have fun making the shapes.. no real definded shape is pretty too. I had a two yr old help make shapes. I boraxed for safety reasons.
From above post....... not to get them wet. They are crystal like. Beautiful gift. last 3yrs if cared for properly.
We made stars and twirls (wrap the pipe cleaner around your finger to make a spring like) use diffrent color pipe cleaners. Gave them away for christmas as tree decoration. Just tie on a string to hand. Kids have lots of fun twirling pipe cleaners. Carefu
I have not had chance to try this projcet yet as they have now stopped selling borax, what else could i use?