Looking for a fun and educational craft project? Learning how to make Borax stars is a fantastic way to combine science and creativity! These stunning crystal stars are easy to make using just a few household items, and the process doubles as a fascinating science experiment. Whether you’re crafting with kids or simply looking to add some unique decorations to your home, this project is perfect for any occasion. Watch in awe as the crystals grow, transforming simple pipe cleaners into sparkling stars.
My daughter’s have seen pretty snowflake ornaments that had been made with Borax and were just dying to try this out to see how the crystals would form on the pipe cleaners. I wasn’t really sure at first because I thought it might just be a big mess but I decided to give it a try anyways. Am I glad I did. Well, I didn’t want to create snowflakes because those had been done before. I wanted to create a shape that I hadn’t seen done, so I thought why not make stars? I first began making a star by just bending the pipes cleaners and I quickly became frustrated. One side always was a little lop sided and the entire star ended up looking misshaped. I came up with an idea to make a simple frame, using a printable star, finish nails, and a board. This ended up working like a charm and made it very easy and efficient to create the star shape. I was no longer frustrated. 
Then it is was on to create the Borax stars. Everytime I’ve seen these, I’ve only seen one shape in a jar at a time. I wanted to crank a couple of these out at once, so I used a gallon bucket and a dowel rod to suspend multiples in the solution. To my surprise, they actually turned out VERY cool.
How To Make Borax Stars
Here’s What You Need:
- Gallon Bucket
- Dowel Rod or Stick
- Fishing Line
- Scissors
- Borax
- Hot Water
- Pipe Cleaners
- Finish Nails or headless nails
- Board
- Hammer
- Printable of a Star
Step 1: Find a star online. Any star print out will work & size it to the size of star that you wish to create. Print it out.
Step 2: Lay the star print out on top of a scrap piece of board as shown above. Using small finish nails, hammer a nail in each point of the star. You are making a frame for a star. You want to use finish nails or nails without a head so that once the pipe cleaner is bent around them, you can just slide them off of the nails without the head getting in the way.
Step 3: Take a pipe cleaner and wrap it around the the outside of the nail on the outer points and on the inside of the nail in between. Continue all the way around. Depending on how large your star is you might have to add on an additional pipe cleaner. Just twist it on and continue. Once you have wrapped the pipe cleaner all away around, trim the excess pipe cleaner off and lift the star off of the nail frame.
You end up with really great looking star for starting with pipe cleaners.
Step 4: Attach your stars to some fishing line. Using a gallon bucket, test to see how long you need to make the fishing line before attaching it to the dowel rod. I wrapped the line around the dowel rod and when it was the height I wanted, I taped it in place. Attach the other stars to the rod. The key with making these BoraxStars is that you don’t want to let the pipe cleaner stars touch one another or the side /bottom of the bucket or the crystals will grow and attach the star to them. lift the stars out of the bucket and set them aside.
Step 5: Create your Borax mixture. I used 3 TBS. of Borax for every 1 Cup of HOT water and I multiplied this until I had my measurements figured out for my gallon sized bucket. Be sure to use hot water because it will help to better dissolve the Borax. Also, it takes a lot of Borax, so only fill your bucket as full as necessary to cover your stars. Keep in mind though, once you have finished with the solution, you can drain the water and reuse the borax crystals that formed on the bottom of your bucket
Step 6: Place the stars in the Borax mixture and let them sit for 24 hours (+/-).
This is not the best picture in the world. But, I wanted you to be able to see how I had these stars set up on the bucket as well as on the dowel rod. This is right after I had drained the Borax solution out. I let the stars drip dry just a bit too. In this photo it looks like one of the stars is touching the another one. It isn’t, it’s actually just turned a bit.
Step 7: Let them air dry.
We were all amazed at how well these turned out. Everyone in our house was checking on the progress of our stars to see how much they were growing. Watching the crystals form was a lot of fun for the entire family.
I had to take a picture of these in the sun light because they just sparkle beautifully like ice and snow crystals.
So pretty!
Making Borax stars is not only a great hands-on activity but also a wonderful way to explore basic chemistry concepts. Whether you’re creating them for holiday décor, science projects, or just for fun, the results are always magical. Have you tried making Borax stars? Let me know in the comments how your stars turned out and share your tips or creative twists!
