Crafts and birthday cards: how to make them yourself

How is gold mined? Perhaps quite a few of our fellow citizens are puzzled by this question: how do they mine gold at home, without going to the mines somewhere? This article will discuss methods for mining (or refining) this precious metal from various sources.

The economic realities of life for the average city resident are such that you have to have your own source of part-time work. But this is also why there is a crisis in the economy and finding a position in a company that brings in enough money is not so easy. Therefore, other than making gold, there are often no options for gold mining.

Gold mining at home can be considered such an additional source of money. In this case, you don’t have to use amalgamation - this is mining based on mercury, because it is known how toxic and harmful this chemical element is not only for the miner himself, but also for his entire environment.

It is known that this method has not been used for a long time by government agencies involved in industrial gold mining. They prefer leaching gold using sodium cyanide.

"Paper" gift

The simplest original gift can be prepared from plain paper; examples are shown in the photo of birthday crafts.

Paper does not require any special financial costs and preparing a present will not take much time.

It is possible to give paper crafts for a birthday to absolutely any loved one.

After all, a thing prepared with all your heart with your own hands will undoubtedly be a unique and non-standard surprise.

For example, you can make a small mysterious chest of drawers from numerous boxes, inside which interesting trinkets or a message with wishes to the birthday boy are hidden.

Or a mug, the layout of which is made of bright colored paper, will undoubtedly attract attention.

It makes sense to fill it with delicious candies or vitamins.

If you want to present not only a beautiful, but also a useful surprise, you can prepare an original personal calendar, which is covered with joint photographs or pictures on a topic that is interesting for the birthday person.

A bouquet of paper flowers is an excellent gift for your beloved women, which even the smallest family member can handle (of course, not without the help of an adult).

Another original gift is a piece of festive paper cake with good, sincere wishes on it.

Some simple materials will be useful for this:

• paper glue (you can use glue or a pencil);
• ruler;
• a simple pencil;
• colored paper or thick cardboard (a gift made from cardboard will be much stronger and more reliable);
• beads, ribbons, beads and rhinestones for decoration.

The work of making such a tasty morsel consists of several steps:

• We prepare the required template for the future piece. It’s more convenient to find it on the Internet and transfer it to a sheet of cardboard, then carefully cut it out.
• According to the finished diagram, carefully bend the necessary places, using a ruler for greater convenience.
• You need to make a small cut on the back of the piece so that the cake closes.
• Glue them in the right places with glue.
• Then the most interesting painstaking process is decorating the gift. Feel free to use your imagination: rhinestones, ribbons, bows. But it’s worth considering that everything should be in moderation!
• We place the prepared wish inside the so-called gift box.

How to get gold?

Before describing the technology for extracting gold with your own hands, let’s define how gold is made and what can become a “gold mine” in the conditions of a certain region. So, first of all, such a source can be a gilded object from the era of socialist realism:

• wristwatch case;
• bijouterie;
• cutlery such as knives, forks, spoons, plates and even cups.

Not to mention the appearance of these items, if you decide to extract gold from improvised means, the main thing is that in the Soviet Union high-quality materials, as well as precious metals, were actively used in products.

So, you should look for precious metals in radio components, microcircuits, connectors, transistors and other parts.

It should be taken into account that the older any electronic device - a computer or TV - is, the more gold parts it contains inside. You can get them at home and with a small amount of special equipment.

"Sweet" gift

A gift of sweets will undoubtedly delight even an adult, not to mention children. You can use candy in bright wrappers or a chocolate bar.

As an example: a candy bouquet that will not take much time and expense. Will come in handy:

wrapping paper;

scissors;

glue for paper or PVA (you can use a special glue gun);

round sweets in beautiful packaging;

“crispy” paper in gold or silver finish;

a basket or a regular metal coffee can;

decorative elements: beads, rhinestones, small bows;

toothpicks or skewers;

scotch.

We do the following work:

Cut several squares of gold or silver foil. Then you need to wrap the candies in them, securing the ends with wire or strong thread - this is the core of the future flower.

The petals will be made from small cut squares of colored corrugated paper, which should be enough for the entire candy shape. For one piece you need to cut two petals rounded at the top.

One candy must be placed in the center of each petal, forming a bud. We again secure the structure with wire or thread.

We take green paper and form small leaves, attach them to the base of the rose, that is, candy. In each you need to insert a wire, which is also wrapped in green paper.

Carefully insert the required number of finished roses into an already decorated vase (prepared decorated jar). In order for the flowers to fit tightly to each other, it is worth placing ribbons or leaves of paper in the gap between them.

A gift for daddy

To give a gift to dad for his birthday, you will have to use your maximum imagination.

For example: a card with a festive shirt and tie.

To do this you need:

Fold a sheet of cardboard in half, in the shape of a postcard.

A sheet of colored paper of a similar format should also be folded in half, making cuts on the sides and bending the corners - this is the collar of our shirt.

Take paper of a different color and form a tie, then glue it under the collar.

The shirt is attached to the main side of the cardboard postcard using PVA glue.

Wishes for the holiday are written inside the finished gift, and you can even glue daddy’s postcards or your own photo as a souvenir inside.

You always look forward to your favorite holiday with anticipation and a miracle.

And DIY birthday crafts allow you to preserve warm, joyful memories!

Mining gold at home - etching method

There are quite a lot of options for extracting gold with your own hands - from ordinary washing of rock or looking for gold nuggets in gold-bearing places to industrial methods that use chemical reagents, such as mercury. Its difference is that it envelops even the smallest particles of gold.

But it was only the fact that mercury is unusually toxic that caused state-owned enterprises to abandon this method. This should also be taken into account by the city gold miner who extracts the precious metal with his own hands. Let's consider such a convenient home gold mining method as etching. For this process you will need the following items:

• plastic basin and bucket, also made of plastic;
• heat-resistant glass container;
• scales;
• durable cotton fabric as a filter;
• a fireproof device for melting metal - a crucible;
• electric stove;
• a pair of rubber gloves.

Since gold, as a chemical element, is highly inert, etching can be used, which requires a specific oxidizing agent. In this case, such an oxidizing agent is a mixture of hydrochloric acid and nitric acid, taken in a ratio of 1 to 3. It is also popularly called “aqua regia.”

If there is no crucible structure, you can use burnt brick, in which you can cut out a cavity with a grinder.

The oxidizing agent is used immediately after it is prepared, because the settling process leads to the decomposition of nitrogen dioxide. This impairs the performance of the oxidizer and the process such as gold synthesis.

Having lowered the boards, microcircuits and other parts into the prepared solution, we can see that after a while a thin film of precious metal will form in the liquid. Other parts of instrument parts that are immersed in the solution will completely dissolve in it.

Photos of birthday crafts