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Christmas crafts for people who don't do crafts - Printable Version

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Christmas crafts for people who don't do crafts - Cracker - 12-12-2010

I'm not a crafter. It's too girly for me. I don't scrapbook or buy ribbons to make shit or get overly excited when I go to Michaels. I do, however, do these things around the holidays to make my family happy:

Borax crystal ornaments:

needed:

*1 box of Twenty Mule Team Borax (buy it on the laundry aisle, in the blue box)
*container of boiling water (do NOT use your nice cookery, this will fuck it up, use an old plastic container to heat the water to boiling in the microwave)
*cheap wooden spoon to mix solution
*chenille wires cut into 3" lengths (pipe cleaners, you can buy the colored ones in the craft aisle at WallyWorld or use the real white kind)
*cheap plastic cups
*thread
*popsicle sticks or pencils/pens you have around the house or sticks (use whatever is long enough to go across the lid of the cup)

1. boil the water and stir in borax until you have a supersaturated solution (when it is supersaturated, borax will start to settle on the bottom and not dissolve, you have enough then)
2. make a Christmas shape or spiral or letter shape using the 3" pipe cleaner. tie the shape at one end of about 10" of thread. wrap the other end of the thread around the stick and hang the wire in a cup until it is about 14 inch from the bottom of the cup and doesn't touch the sides.
3. pour the borax solution into the cup, covering the ornament, and set aside overnight until the solution cools. the borax will come out of the solution and will cling to the chenille wire.

Colored Fire pinecones

needed:

*pinecones (or sawdust, or old odd bits of cork, or dried pieces of branches)
*bucket of water
*chemical for different colored fire: green~use boric acid, sold at cheap stores (dollar store, dollar general, etc) in powder form as a bug repellent, white~epsom salts (magnesium sulfate), yellowish green~borax, same kind as used in the crystal ornaments, purple~potassium chloride (salt substitute, also used as a water softener, Morton's sells this at WallyWorld or you should be able to get the salt substitute on the spice aisle at the grocery store) orange~calcium chloride (the dessicate used in Damp Rid, also can buy it at auto stores to dry up spills, I think it is also present in some dry bleach check the label)

put enough water in the bucket to cover the pinecones, you don't need to fill the bucket. mix in as much of the ONE chemical (one at a time, unless you want to blow up) as will be absorbed in the water. you may want to heat the water a little, don't boil it. soak pinecones overnight then place on a thick layer of newspaper outside to dry. we throw these on the fire while we are sitting around having our Christmas drink.

What do you make around the holidays?


RE: Christmas crafts for people who don't do crafts - bampton - 12-12-2010

Do you have any pics of the Borax ornaments?


RE: Christmas crafts for people who don't do crafts - Lady Cop - 12-12-2010

IF i were going to do anything craft-like, it would be to go out and get lots of evergreen boughs, holly, pine cones, and make mantel swags with candles. i like that look. i have always done that when living in New England and having lots of woods.
but real crafts with glue-guns and shit? nah.
Maggot is the really crafty one around here~~



RE: Christmas crafts for people who don't do crafts - Cracker - 12-12-2010

Lady, I just told you I'm not crafty. I don't take pictures.

I can, however, google. They look like these:

[Image: borax+ornament.jpg]

[Image: 1.png]

[Image: DSC03532.JPG]

[Image: How-to-make-Borax-crystal-decorations-to-impress-a.jpg]

The first year they are more transparent. After they dry, they are the white opaque color. I do it for the kiddies. The grown ones still like to make them.


RE: Christmas crafts for people who don't do crafts - Cracker - 12-12-2010

[Image: beakers-717179.JPG&t=1]


RE: Christmas crafts for people who don't do crafts - bampton - 12-12-2010

Love those! They might even be easy for a non-crafty like me.


RE: Christmas crafts for people who don't do crafts - Maggot - 12-12-2010

Those are cool! I wonder if those elastic wrist band animal shaped things the kids are all ga-ga about would work.


RE: Christmas crafts for people who don't do crafts - Cracker - 12-12-2010

IDK if silly bandz would work. They might. A few of the crystals form on the thread used to hang the shape, so maybe. Borax is cheap (around $4 for a box, you only use about 14 of the box at a time) so it would be cheap to experiment. Don't spill this all over. It's a bitch to clean up the borax when it dries on the counters.


RE: Christmas crafts for people who don't do crafts - Maggot - 12-12-2010

Will 40 mules pulling a big rock scrape it off the counter?


RE: Christmas crafts for people who don't do crafts - Maggot - 12-12-2010

I'm sorry 39 mules, one was castrated and is currently sleeping it off in bed.


RE: Christmas crafts for people who don't do crafts - Cracker - 12-12-2010

It might scratch your counters if you try to get it off dry. Then your wife would kill you and ruin the holidays for your family.

I hope you and that mule had fun in Vegas.

I always sniff the box when I open it. It smells like Death Valley.


RE: Christmas crafts for people who don't do crafts - Maggot - 12-12-2010

I knew a girl nicknamed death valley her real name was Beth. But will just take your advise on this as I want to live another day.


RE: Christmas crafts for people who don't do crafts - Cracker - 12-16-2010

We made these for the front windows: http://familyfun.go.com/crafts/glittery-window-clings-674868/