Life In Texas: Grow Your Own Snowflakes!

If you're like me, you're always looking for fun, fast and inexpensive crafts for your kids to do. Last Christmas, my kids and I grew our own snowflakes. I had seen a post or two about this floating around the Internet, but none of them explained as clearly as I wanted or included pictures. So, I hope that you all find this instructive and easy to follow!

Supplies:
pipe cleaners
yarn

pencils or bamboo sticks
microwave safe jar or container

water
Borax

food coloring (optional)

Step 1: Cut pipe cleaners in to 3 - 5 equal pieces (depending on what size you want your snowflakes). We cut ours into 5 pieces and used 3 pieces for each snowflake.

Step 2: For a 6 spoke snowflake, fold 2 pieces in half and wrap around a 3 piece of pipe cleaner. Spread the spokes to desired position. Don’t stress about making them all “perfect” or identical. Remember, in nature, every snowflake is unique.

Step 3: Attach a piece of yarn to on spoke of each snowflake.

Step 4: Tie the other end of the yarn around the pencil or bamboo stick. Make sure to tie it short enough that your snowflake isn’t touching the bottom of your container.

Step 5: Measure in cups, the amount of water that you’re container or jar holds. Boil that amount of water. Once it’s boiling, pour it into your container. Then add 3 tbs of Borax for every one cup of water. (Ex: If your container holds 2 cups of water, use 6 tbs of Boraz.) Add food coloring, if desired.

Step 6: Place snowflakes in Borax/water mixture. Make sure that your snowflake is completely submerged and not touching any edges of your container.

Step 7: Allow snowflakes to sit for 12 -24 hours.

Step 8: Remove snowflakes from mixture and lay them on a towel to dry.

Step 9: Once the snowflakes have dried, tie yarn into a loop and hang as decoration. We hung some on our Christmas tree. They also make great hand-made gifts for the kids to give to grandparents. We also put one snowflake on each gift my kids gave last Christmas.