Make Your Own Unique Faux Amethyst Mirror With This Tutorial

Tools and materials:

• Borax
• Jar or glass
• Food coloring
• Boiling water
• Pipe cleaners
• String
• Scissors
• Skewer or something similar
• Mirror with frame
• Painter’s tape and/or cardboard

You’re going to start off by making the crystals out of a Borax solution, and the first thing you need to do for that is to take some pipe cleaners and scrunch them up. No rhyme or reason is needed for the way you fold them!

To make a Borax solution, you’re going to mix Borax into boiling water. Keep adding the powder until you see it forming a film at the bottom of the jar, resulting from the powder no long dissolving into the solution.

You don’t have to, but if you want to make your crystals colorful, you’ll have to add some food coloring to the solution, now. I chose purple to get an amethyst-looking crystal.

Take your pipe cleaner and tie some kind of a string around it, then tie the other side of the string to a skewer or something else that can lay flat across the jar. Your pipe cleaner should be suspended in the liquid.

Place a piece of cardboard or something else over the jar to keep it covered and prevent air from getting in to slow down the process. Then leave it to sit overnight. For this project you’ll need a lot of crystals, so repeat this process as many times as you want (I made about two dozen) and let them sit in the solution.

Paint the frame of your mirror with Mod Podge. Then pour glitter in the same color as your crystals on the Mod Podge. This will look great under any gaps in your crystal placement. I recommend taping some cardboard over the mirror while you do this.

Carefully remove your crystals from their jars and dry them on a towel.

Take your crystals and place them where you want them to be on your frame. I chose to also use some fake flowers in the color scheme.

Once you’re satisfied with your placement, go ahead and glue everything down. I used E6000 adhesive. If you chose not to use glitter on your frame, I would recommend sanding the frame first because the glue works better on a textured surface.

That’s it! After your mirror dries, remove the cardboard, and it is ready to be hung up! I loved this project. I had so much fun with it and I just love how all the elements come together. You can see different shades of crystals depending on what color pipe cleaner I used, and I think the flowers really add some fun. Purple is one of my favorite colors, so this definitely matches the decor in my home. I hope you try this out because it is such a great project. Just be sure to share your results in the comments!