Twinkle, Twinkle
I think this might be the year we retire our wickedly, awesome college tree. With that being said, I realized I was going to be in need of some fun ornaments when we get our new tree. Then I thought to myself, “Self, why don’t you just make your own.” I scoured the internet and my brain to make a list of ornaments that I want for our tree this year. This is the first item on my list.
I used to have my second graders make Borax snowflakes like these. They are easy to make and they turn out super sparkly. The picture doesn’t really do it justice, but I swear there is good sparkle.
If anyone is interested, you mix 3 TBS of Borax for every cup of hot water. I usually boil the hot water 1st and then mix in the Borax. For those of you thinking, “What in the world is Borax?” It can be found by the other detergents in the cleaner aisle(20 Mule comes in powder form, look for a turquoise box). I dump the mixture into a bucket and dangle pipe cleaners (bent into the snowflake shapes) into the bucket. I used fishing line as the means of hanging. The ambiguous ”they” say the flakes need to sit over night, but I find that 3-5 hours is sufficient. I have found that the hotter the water, the bigger the crystals are when they form. I’m wondering if there is any correlation there to the amount of time it takes for the water to cool. Cooler water tends to create smaller crystals and sometimes results in powdery residue. Jim?!
Wow! What a great idea! I’m going to steal it and use it as Christmas gifts for my preschoolers to make for their parents if that’s ok!
December 4th, 2009 at 10:17 am