Borax Crystal Hearts: For Valentine's Day

With just a few ingredients and a few hours, you too can make borax crystal hearts and create ‘one of a kind’ Valentine’s Day pieces for your home.

It is safe to say that the last few months have been a period in time that I really ventured into the world of ‘crafting’ and ‘DIY.’ Maybe it was because of the pandemic and being home so much. Maybe it was because we all had a little more free time on our hands. Maybe it was because I have met so many other amazing crafters and I am totally inspired. No matter what the reason, I am loving it. Being creative in this way has been so much fun. Especially during this last year.

Doing more crafts and DIYs means that I am also ‘making’ more things for my home. So far this Valentine’s season I have already made these hearts and these too and I have really enjoyed experimenting with new ‘ideas.’ With that in mind, I decided to try my hand at making borax crystals. I have always wanted to try making them and I felt that borax crystal hearts would be perfect for Valentines Day.

When I am decorating for a holiday, I like to incorporate a bit of the ‘unexpected.’ I also love to a good mix of nature and whimsy. So…. I decided to create a Valentine’s Day Tree to showcase the borax crystal hearts that I made. I love the way it turned out!

Materials

Mason Jars
Borax
Boiling Water
Red Pipe Cleaners
White Pipe Cleaners
Skewers or Craft Sticks

Process

Whether you are making just one heart or several, this is a super easy and quite interesting DIY. Be sure to watch your hearts closely as the crystals ‘grow.’

Prep Your Hearts

Begin by making your pipe cleaner hearts. They are simple to do and if you have kids, this would be a fun and easy way to get them involved.

Simply take a red pipe cleaner and bend it into the shape of a heart. Be sure to make your heart small enough to fit inside of the mason jar and allow for a little extra room for the crystals to grow.

After you have shaped the heart then take a white pipe cleaner and wrap one end around the heart and wrap the opposite end around your skewer.

Prep Your Jars Of Water

You could possibly use another container, but I chose to use glass mason jars for this step!

Bring several cups of water to a boil. Because I was making a lot of hearts (and therefore I needed several mason jars to fill up), I decided to use a tea pot to boil my water.

Pour 1 cup of boiling water into a mason jars and then add 3 Tablespoons or borax powder. Make sure to stir it well to ensure that the borax dissolves.

Add Your Hearts To The Water

This is where the real fun begins to happen!

When you are ready to drop your hearts into the mason jars, all you have to do is rest the skewer on top of the jar and let the heart hang in the Borax/water solution. You may have to adjust the length of your white pipe cleaner to make use the heart isn’t dragging on the bottom of the jar. To do this, simply wrap it around the skewer an extra time or two.

Let your heart sit in the solution for 24 hours. As you let it sit, you will begin to notice crystals slowly growing on the hearts. Make sure you visit your hearts throughout the day as the crystals begin to form.

Style Your Hearts

After 24 hours your hearts should be fully covered in crystals. Once they are, simply take your hearts out and let them dry on a rag or paper towel. Once dried, I removed the white pipe cleaner and then added a little loop of white string. Then, I simply hung them evenly on the tree branches. (I spray painted my branches white, but you could leave them natural!)

The Science Behind The Magic

Hot water can hold more Borax powder than cold water can because the molecules in the hot water are more active and are bouncing around more. This movement leaves more space between the water molecules. That space allows more room for more Borax to mix in. This means that hot water can hold more of the borax than cold water. So, as the water mixture begins to cool off, the water molecules begin to move closer together again. This leaves less space for the borax molecules to go. The borax molecules have to go somewhere so they bond with other borax particles and start to crystalize on the pipe cleaner heart. Volia!

Wrap Up

Making Borax crystals is very fun – for both children and adults alike. In just a few short steps – and with just a little bit of waiting – you too can have a few crystal hearts this Valentine’s Day season. You can tuck your hearts anywhere! You can hang them on a tree branch like I did or just pop them in any of your favorite spots around the house. If you make these borax crystal hearts, please tag me on Facebook or Instagram. Happy Valentine’s Day to you all.