How to make Borax crystal decorations to impress and amaze the kids

Step 12 Fully submerged

Dip your decoration into the jar of hot liquid Borax until it is fully submerged in the mixture. Balance the pencil across the mouth of the jar so that the decoration is centered in the middle of the jar. Make sure that no part of the decoration is touching the sides of the glass jar. This is especially important because crystals will grow on the walls as well as the pipe cleaner and if the pipe cleaner is too close to the jar walls it will get stuck thus potentially ruining your hard work when you pull it out of the jar. We can't have that!

Now's the time you wait. Sit back, relax, go to bed and in the morning check on your creation. You might even want to wait up a bit. Perhaps, read a book to the kids. We like Kenneth Libbrecht's cool micro-photography book "Snowflakes". Then check on the jars to see if anything has happened yet. So exciting.