In the midst of playing, I found myself wondering if I could use their lovely glowing innards to make glow in the dark paint. Now, the label on the glow stick canister clearly said that we shouldn't "puncture" the tubes... but it also said that the glow sticks were nontoxic. So... I figured that as long as we didn't let the paint touch our skin, eyes, or clothes we should be ok. Here's what my glow in the dark painting looked like:
Update 5/29/13- Several concerned readers brought up valuable points regarding possibly dangerous chemicals and glass inside the tubes. Be sure to read the comments below and think twice before attempting this activity...
Materials:
- Scissors
- Disposable container (to hold paint)
- Paint brush
- Paper towel
- Newspaper
- Gloves
- Corn starch
Directions:
1. Cover your area with newspaper and wear gloves (I didn't do this... but looking back I think it would be a good idea since you are working with chemicals.)
2. Crack your glow stick so that the entire stick glows
3. Open up your glow stick. To do this, I held the glow stick vertically over my disposable container. I cut the top bottom end of the glow stick. The liquid inside didn't flow out very quickly. So, I turned the glow stick upside down (so that the cut end was now on top and the uncut end was on the bottom). Then, I cut the bottom uncut end. (We cut it this way so that the tip wouldn't go flying in the air. Plus, the liquid flowed much quicker if both ends were cut.)
3. I added a bit of corn starch to the glowing liquid to thicken up the paint.
4. Use your paint to paint pieces of paper towel placed over newspapers.
Now, I'm sure you already could guess this... but sadly the images don't glow forever. So enjoy their beauty while they last.
Oh yeah- here are some other photos of our glow stick play:
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