Activities & Days Out / 15 December, 2019 / Nanny Anita

Making Chromatography Snowflakes

I am pretty sure that when your little ones get sent home with all their work on the last day of term there will be some cut out snowflakes in the mix. It is a pretty standard Christmas craft to do. In fact EC came home the other day with a beautiful picture he had made of them. However, these chromatography snowflakes are not your average ones, and I think that they are truly beautiful ones to make, it took me a few attempts to really get the effect I wanted, but it was worth it.

Make sure you follow my Christmas board on Pinterest for more ideas.  Don’t forget to save the pin for later. 

To make your own chromatography snowflakes you will need:

• Coffee filters
• Felt tip pens
• Water sprayer
• Scissors

First of all you need to cover your table, this is guaranteed to create a mess and you wont want to stain your table an array of amazing colours.

Colour in your filter – this doesn’t need to be neat, they can literally scribble all over it.

Place another blank filter underneath the one that you have just decorated.

Completely spray the top coffee filter with water; the pen should begin to bleed onto the filter underneath.

Turn them over and now spray the blank filter with the one you originally decorated underneath it. When it is completely damp, press down on them to transfer as much colour as possible.

Separate them and fold both in half, then half again and finally half again. You should be left with what looks like a slice of a circle.

Now start to cut shapes out of the sides.

Finally open it up to see you finished results and leave to dry out.

These printed snowflakes are really unique and a lot of fun to do. Because you can literally scribble over them, it means even the youngest child can get involved, although they may need help with the cutting. EC and YC were really fascinated with why the colours started to “become fuzzy”, so there is a little bit of science involved with chromatography.

Pin for later: