Crystal Shamrocks...

 I love letting the kids make crafts and then decorating with them for St. Patrick's Day.  Maybe it's the bright colors...greens, yellows, and rainbows.  What's not to love.  I think I love decorating for it because it is a sign of Spring and who doesn't like to see bright colors after a long Winter?  I came up with the idea for these crystal shamrocks after we made crystal snowflakes last winter.  They were so easy to make and the girls loved watching the crystals grow.  We made these on a snow/cold day from school, so they had plenty of time to keep an eye on the growing crystals!

You will need:

Pipe cleaners (various colors to represent St. Patrick's day.)

String

Borax

Water

wide mouth jars

pencil

Our first step was to find a picture of a shamrock on the internet that we liked, then we cropped it to our desired size.  Then we used it as a template to make our shamrock with a pipe cleaner...

Next we tied a string to the shamrock and the other end of the string to a pencil.  Then add a 1/2 Cup Borax ax to each wide mouth jar and pour in 3 Cups boiling water and stir until the Borax is dissolved.  You can find the Borax in the laundry aisle at the grocery or on Amazon .  Carefully dip the shamrock into the jar and try to not let it rest on the sides of the jar.  Rest the pencil on top of the jar and wait.  We left ours out all day and all night...

Once we took them out of the jars, we let them dry for a bit and then I hung them in a doorway.  I love how they look, especially in the late afternoon when the sun shines in the window.  They sparkle!