magic tree

                                         

 Cut a slot down the middle of one tree shape.

 Add drops of food coloring to the edges of the cardboard and let the food coloring soak into the cardboard.

  

  Using the bowl, mix these ingredients together:

• 1 tablespoon of water
•  1 tablespoon salt
•   1 tablespoon bluing
•   1/2 tablespoon of household ammonia

   Stand your tree in the middle of the bowl containing your magic solution and be patient. Over the next 10 to 12 hours, your Magic Crystal Tree will grow and grow and grow!

  The main principle at work here is capillary action.  Capillary action is the same process that enables plants and trees to take water and nutrients from the soil up through their stems or trunks and into their leaves, branches, flowers, and fruit. 


The cardboard tree uses the same process to draw the magic solution up through its entire shape until the cardboard has soaked itself in the solution.

After the magic solution has been drawn throughout the tree by capillary action, the solution begins to evaporate. 


The evaporation process is accelerated by the ammonia, which evaporates more quickly than water. As the magic solution evaporates off of the tree, the crystals are left behind on the branches of the tree.

The magic crystals that are left behind are a combination of the Mrs. Stewart's Bluing and the table salt. The bluing is acolloid, with many tiny particles suspending themselves within the water. It's just like when you shake up a snow globe, except the particles of bluing are much smaller than the snow. These tiny suspended particles aid the dissolved salt in crystalizing as the magic solution evaporates.