Carnegie Museum of Natural History

One of the Four Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh

Create Bugs in Amber Slime!

Create your own slime using everyday household craft materials. Using toy insects, recreate what would happen to insects when they were caught in tree resin, fossilizing them. Great for kids who love Jurassic Park and fossils!

Borax Recipe

  • ½ cup of (preferably clear) PVA glue
  • ½ cup water (mix with glue)
  • ½ teaspoon borax powder
  • ½ cup warm water (Mix with Borax)
  • 5-10 drops of yellow food coloring or substitute
  • Measuring cups & spoons
  • 2 medium-sized bowls
  • Insect toys

Non-Borax Recipe

  • ½ cup of (preferably clear) PVA glue
  • ½ cup water
  • 1 tbsp. saline solution (must contain boric acid and sodium borate!)
  • ¼-½ tsp. baking soda
  • 5-10 drops of yellow food coloring
  • Measuring cups & spoons
  • 2 medium-sized bowls
  • Small plastic insect toys
yellow slime with glitter

Did you know, in 2017, the museum received a collection of prehistoric ticks trapped in amber called “Dracula’s Terrible Tick?”

Read about Dracula’s Terrible Ticks!

Directions for Borax Recipe

  1. Mix ½ cup of water and ½ cup of glue in bowl.
  2. Add 5-10 drops of food coloring to glue mixture.
  3. Mix ¼ tsp. of borax and ½ cup warm water in a separate bowl. Stir until completely mixed in.
  4. Add the borax and water mixture slowly to your glue and water mixture. Start stirring immediately! Your slime will soon start to form immediately. 
  5. Keep mixing until slime has formed. immediately take out and put in the dry container.
  6. Continue to stir any leftover liquid until it turns into slime. Transfer it to the dry container once you are done.
  7. Start kneading your slime mixture and add pretend insects! It may feel stringy at first but will change in texture the more it is kneaded. 

Directions for Non-Borax Recipe

  1. Put ½ cup of glue in bowl.
  2. Mix ¼-½ tsp. baking soda and ½ cup water in a bowl until baking soda is completely dissolved.
  3. Add 5-10 drops of food coloring to baking soda and water mixture.
  4. Gently mix both glue and food-colored mixture.
  5. Add 1 tbsp. saline solution and stir quickly until slime starts to form,  
  6. Put a few drops of saline solution on hands and start to knead slime together
  7. Add pretend insects, and you’ve created your own amber slime!

Want to keep the slime you’ve created longer? Keep it in the fridge!