Make liquid glass or at least crystal clear slime with he kids. Our Elmer’s clear glue slime recipe is amazingly easy, and it’s the perfect chemistry and science demonstration the kids love. We stumbled upon a fun little fact to get our slime to look as clear as glass. Homemade slime is an awesome activity to share with kids, and we have the best slime recipes to share with you!
ELMER’S CLEAR GLUE SLIME RECIPE FOR KIDS
GOT SLIME?
Are you new to the slime craze or have you been loving slime all along? I absolutely NEVER thought I would have tried making homemade slime four years ago.
My biggest thought was how can I ever get it to turn out like the pictures. Then I made some…
And you know what? It’s actually pretty easy. We have a handful of homemade slime recipes that I have used over and over again.
CHECK OUT OUR: HOMEMADE SLIME RECIPE HERE {bedsides the clear glue glass slime below}
Yes, Elmer’s Washable School Glue is absolutely fantastic for making slime quickly and easily. That’s exactly why, you will see us use it each and every time.
Except, I just want to you know, I am NOT PAID by Elmer’s brand to represent their glue. It just works that well, and my goal is to show you how easily we make our slime every time.
CHECK OUT OUR SLIME MAKING VIDEOS HERE
CRYSTAL CLEAR SLIME LOOKS LIKE LIQUID GLASS!
We {my son really} stumbled upon one fascinating little tip to really get your slime to look like crystal clear glass, and I will leave that at the very end for you to discover too.
Though, I will tell you, that the best way to achieve crystal clear and glass like slime is by using our borax slime recipe.
Now before you click away from this, borax powder is not the enemy. The media is. Read more here and here about why you can use borax for slime, and it’s really ok {unless you are allergic of course!}
Our other recipes {although they contain boron too} will leave you with a cloudy clear slime instead unless you add food coloring, but we wanted an absolutely crystal clear slime like liquid glass!
This post contains affiliate links. See disclosure.
ELMER’S CLEAR GLUE SLIME SUPPLIES
Elmer’s Washable Clear Glue
Water
Borax Powder {laundry aisle}
Measuring cups, bowl, spoon or craft sticks
Tray {for easy clean up, optional}
STEP BY STEP DIRECTIONS FOR MAKING ELMER’S CLEAR GLUE SLIME
*Note: We used a full cup of glue for this slime activity. You can also get a nice pile of slime with only a 1/2 cup and even a 1/4 cup if you have several kids or just want to try it out for the first time. If we want to mix slime colors, we will often make 1/4 batches.*
STEP 1: Measure out 1 cup of clear glue into a bowl
STEP 2: Add 1 cup of water to the glue and stir to combine
STEP 3: Measure out 1 teaspoon of borax powder and 1 cup of hot water {hot tap water is fine and does not need to be boiled} as seen below. This is best done by adults.
STEP 4: Add the borax powder to the water and stir well to combine. You are making a saturated solution and you will see a few particles still floating around and settling to the bottom. Spend a minute stirring to make sure the powder is well incorporated.
STEP 5: Add the borax slime activator solution {borax powder and water} to the glue/water mixture. Start stirring! Your slime will begin to form instantly. Keep stirring until you have incorporated as much of the liquid as possible.
There may be some liquid leftover. Remove slime from the container and discard liquid safely.
STEP 6: Continue to knead slime with your hands for several minutes to improve on the rubbery slime consistency. If I have time I let the slime rest in a clean, dry container for 15+ minutes. Otherwise, enjoy the slime play!
Slime can be stored in a container with a lid for several weeks we have discovered! Unless of course it’s getting dirty and gross. Make sure to wash hands thoroughly after playing with your slime {wash hands before to keep slime cleaner longer}.
WHAT’S THE SCIENCE BEHIND THE SLIME?
What’s the science behind the slime? The borate ions in the starch {or borax powder or boric acid} mixes with the PVA {polyvinyl-acetate} glue and forms this cool stretchy substance. This is called cross linking!
The glue is a polymer and is made up of long, repeating, and identical strands or molecules. These molecules with flow past one another keeping the glue in a liquid state.
The addition of water is important to this process. Think about when you leave a gob of glue out, and you find it hard and rubbery the next day.
When you add the borate ions to the mixture, it starts to connect these long strands together. They begin to tangle and mix until the substance is less like the liquid you started with and is thicker and rubberier like slime!
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT THE BASICS OF SLIME SCIENCE FOR KIDS
Remember that liquid glass slime tip I told you I would share at the end of the post? Here it is.
We made this large batch of slime and it was filled with air bubbles, so it wasn’t crystal clear and it didn’t look like glass at all! But it was still a lot of fun and cool to play with too.
We stuck it in a glass container and put a lid on it and it ended up sitting on the counter untouched for a day and a half while we were busy with swim and school and friends.
My son checked on it and noticed that the large air bubbles were much less large.
We let it sit even longer and the bubbles were even smaller and almost non existent. Well there’s only so long you can let the slime sit before playing with it again.
We did test this out on three separate batches of our Elmer’s clear glue slime to just check it out.
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We used this recipe and have enjoyed playing with our clear slime. Thank you for sharing!
Can we can’t make it without using borax
Well you can make slime without borax, but if you want crystal clear slime you need to use borax or you will have cloudy slime. If you plan to add food coloring then you can use our liquid starch or saline slime recipes!