Keeping up with the holiday theme, today we’re going to use our Universal pH test paper to test household products that will give us red and green test results. This is going to be a very simple test to perform, so you may want to come up with a Christmas craft using the red and green papers to expand the activity.

Our Universal pH Test Paper is a qualitative pH paper, meaning it does not give exact results, but rather an idea of whether a solution is very strongly, strongly or weakly acidic versus weakly or strongly alkaline. It is a broad-range pH test, and similar to litmus paper, it is quick and easy.

On the Universal pH paper color chart, very strongly acidic solutions will turn the paper a nice red color, while alkaline solutions will turn the paper a nice green color. We want to hit those two ends of the spectrum to get our holiday paper results.

How do we do that? Using household products, of course.

Lemon juice or vinegar are great options to achieve very strongly acidic results, as both have an approximate pH value of 2.0. Wearing gloves, pour a small sample of each into a cup or bowl, and dip or completely immerse the strip. Remove and set on a paper towel to dry.

On the other end of the scale, try testing hand soap or detergent. Alternatively, if you have any antacid tablets, you can put them in a cup of distilled water and test that solutions. Similarly, you could mix baking soda with distilled water, and test that solution. Between these four options, you will get varied results from light to darker green. Each is close to a pH value of 10.0.

Again, wearing gloves, pour a small sample of each into a cup or bowl, and dip or completely immerse the strip. Remove and set on a paper towel to dry.

That’s it! A quick and easy pH test to get Christmas colors for another holiday craft. Try filling a clear bulb ornament with this holiday paper confetti or making your own holiday card. Wrap and glue the paper strips around a plastic candy cane shape to make a red and green candy cane ornament. Decorate some wrapping paper. We don’t care what you do, just have fun with it!