As Kate so delicately alluded to earlier this week, I am somewhat of a holiday junkie. And Christmas is the holiday of all holidays for me. I decorated a week before Thanksgiving; yep, I’m one of those people. One of my most favorite holiday traditions as a child was our little family advent calendar and now that my kids are old enough to enjoy some fun and creative activities, I’ve filled up our little numbered stockings with slips of paper instead of candy. Well, slips of paper intermingled with candy. It’s December; we have to have candy. I let the kiddos pull day #1 a little early so I could blog about it! I tried to word everything creatively so they could have fun trying to figure it out.
(There have been lots of questions about my advent calendar, and what I put into it. You can read all about it here!)
Snow globes are magical, whimsical, and fun. And they’re super easy to make at home.
The first thing you need are jars, with nice snug lids. Check out your fridge; I grabbed an almost empty bottle of peperoncini peppers (that I have been using on Greek Salads and Greek Tacos, you’d think I was the pregnant one with the cravings I have for those. I am most definitely not.) I also had a bottle of capers that I finally finished by making one last batch of this Grown Up Dipping Sauce (another obsession, you guys need to all try that one), and a big jar from marinara that we used for dipping Pizza Rolls. Marinated artichoke heart jars work really great for these, as do little teeny tiny baby food jars. Really any size jar works; you just have to find things to fit inside of them.
You can be creative with the items that go inside your snow globe, it’s just important that they are made of materials that won’t break down in water. Think plastic, ceramic, etc. If you’re not sure, just try placing the items in a bowl of water for a few hours and see if they start doing weird things. Try thrift and craft stores for little winter-themed figurines. And if you don’t have any of those, try some crap that belongs to your children that you want to throw away anyway fun stuff like this and try a silly snow globe.
Another really fun thing is to make your own little figurines with Sculpey Clay. You can buy all different colors at almost any craft store and it just bakes in the oven. A snowman would be super easy to make! I snipped all of my greenery off of artificial garlands I have around my house.
I decided to take it up a notch though, and put something extra special inside. I can’t tell you how much I love it when I have an idea in my head and it actually works like I thought it would! I just took a photo of each kiddo, printed it out on my home printer, cut it out, and ran it through my laminator (the laminator you all recommended to me on Facebook that I got and love. Muah!) If you don’t have a laminator, most copy stores have lamination services that don’t cost much. Make sure when you cut around your lamination, you leave a tiny border so it stays sealed up.
You will create your scene on the underside of the jar lid. I just use plain ol’ hot glue. You might want to take a piece of sand paper and rough up the inside of the jar lid so the glue adheres better. I didn’t do that with this batch and everything has stayed put just fine, but something you can try. If you have things with wide, flat bases, they’re easy to just glue right on. But if you have something like my little plastic pictures, or a tree sprig with a tiny twig at the bottom, I’ve found that it’s easier for me if I have something like little rocks (those blue things you see in the photos; they’re aquarium rocks from the pet store that I had from another project) to help keep things in place. It will make sense when you do it, but basically you can pile some glue down there, put your object in, and then mound some pebbles around it to adhere everything together as the glue dries. Check out my little snow bunnies:
It’s just important to remember to keep things away from the edges enough that you can still screw the lid onto the jar, so don’t fill the entire base with glue or rocks. When everything is dry turn it upside down and shake it a few times to make sure nothing falls off!
The next step is filling up your jar with water, almost to the very top and dumping in a bunch of glitter. I recommend adding a little more glitter than you think you need, especially if you have greenery because some of it will get stuck in there.
One thing you can do is add some glycerin, which makes the glitter float down a little slower than it does in plain water. (Or several readers have commented that baby oil accomplishes the same thing. You can also find snow globe “snow” on eBay at at some craft stores.) Glycerin can be found in the baking aisle of craft supply stores in small bottles or on Amazon. If you have some already, or find it easily, you can try that out. I did a side by side test and found that it didn’t make a huge difference, unless I added quite a bit. Probably at least 2-3 teaspoons per cup of water.
You know the Wilton gel colors we use in everything? Well if those get dried out, you can add glycerin to them to restore the consistency. You can also add it to homemade soap bubbles to make the bubbles stronger. I’ve heard you can also buy it at drug stores, often near the first aid supplies. Isn’t it kind of interesting when things can be found in both the cake decorating and first aid aisles?? Didn’t know that, but I read it on the internet, and if there’s one thing we all should know by now it is that everything on the internet is true. The internet is also where I discovered that if you have some benzoic acid laying around, you can make your own snow. Crap. I’m out of benzoic acid.
Anyhoo…just carefully squish your stuff in the jar as you put the lid on and tighten it. You can put hot glue on the edge of the jar if you’re want to seal it up. Or you could put some colored electrical tape around the edge of the jar. I left mine un-glued (and I strongly suggest you do, at least at first) in case I had to open them up to fix anything, or store them without water until next year, or change the water if it got cloudy, etc. I found out that one of my little red berries was painted and turned the entire snow globe pink so I was glad they weren’t glued shut and I could just snip it out and re-fill it. My jars haven’t leaked. I do flip them over sometimes and set them lid-side-up just in case. Either way it’s best to display them somewhere that won’t be damaged if a little water leaks out.
You can also paint your lids if you want to cover up the labels on them. I’m much too lazy for paint. (But not too lazy to laminate my children and put them in winter scenes inside of snow globes. It’s all about priorities, people.)
Now all that is left to do is watch your kids marvel in amazement and listen to them ask 50 times a day, “Mom, can I shake my snow globe?!”
My jars stay on my windowsill in front of my kitchen sink so they can stare at me, mocking, as I do dishes and they play in the snow.
Seriously- Best. Craft. Ever.
Bonus fun, make giant freaky eyeballs and giggle your heart out:
FYI- I wondered if the lamination would hold up in the water. I didn’t expect it to last forever, I was aiming for a few weeks at least, but it looks great; no water seeping in whatsoever. These have been in water for a couple weeks now and they look just like they did when I made them. Maybe they will last forever? (Edit: one commenter said her daughter made a snow globe with a laminated picture inside 12 years ago and it still looks great!)
*Disclaimer: this post contains affiliate links.
Questions & Reviews
Thanks for the idea and the giggle. You have a great sense of humor – it’s rare that I read all the way through someone’s blog but I had to read yours. I think I will try this even though my kids are teenagers – good way to torture them since teenagers and smiling don’t go together very often. 🙂
I made your snowglobes for our missionaries.
Thanks for your great blog!
Merry Christmas.
http://buenosaireswest.blogspot.com/2011/12/argentine-snow-globes.html
I just tried making this and I used a glue gun to glue down a photo holder to the lid then I added it into the water and it came off the lid.. Any glue recommendations??
All of mine turned brown??? I love this idea and want to salvage mine as they are christmas gifts:) Did the snips of green turn your water eventually??? I am so sad. I am not sure how to make them not turn colors?? Should I seal the branches and stuff with a spray of some kind?
Super adorable!!! Your boys are adorable anyway, but even cuter in a snow globe!
Brilliant, love the use of photos, am planning on giving this a go next year, nice and early when there is much less to do 🙂 Shared in on my crafty page on fb
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ivys-Attic/126592304936 Seasons Greetings 🙂
This is a great idea, but I would say that it is more geared for kids ages 8 and older. I was going to have this be a craft for my son’s pre-K class, but after I made one by myself the night before…NO WAY.
I ended up making all of them for the kids and their moms and they did something much, MUCH simpler.
Definitely try out your ‘extras’ to make certain that they do not disintegrate in the water. Maybe overnight. I had to redo one of the globes because it had floaties and was milky from a fake lollipop.
I experienced “glitter clump/float” as well when I made a globe. Using distilled water with glycerin instead tap water seemed to help a bit. Also, the “snow” (shiny white crystals) purchased from a craft store (Michael’s) did not float well – too heavy.
I did this for a lab with teens, they still love this stuff!!! I didn’t have much luck with baby oil, if you try this I recommend finding the glycerin. Many sites say baby oil is OK but it made all the glitter clump.
These are adorable. I had everyone in the office at my desk checking out the website. They all have small children and I have 6 grandchildren.. I can see this being a Mothers Day gift that my Brownie Girl Scouts can make as well. I will definatly share the idea, THANKS!
Love Love Love <3
I am so PSYCHED I found your blog. This is soooo awesome. I am building one tonight for my little niece for Xmas. She collects snow globes – and wait till she see’s her aunt Dee ( Wen-“Dee” ) waving from behind a tree – in a globe! !!!
I am so PSYCHED I found your blog. This is soooo awesome. I am building one tonight for my little niece for Xmas. She collects snow globes – and wait till she see’s her aunt Dee ( Wen-“Dee” ) waving from behind a tree!!!
$1 Store sells lamination sheets and they work great!
Awesome Craft!
Which dollar store? Dollar tree?
Love the fact that I can ask a question….I am making snow globe ornaments, my confetti and glitter aren’t cooperating, and sitting on top….using glycerin with water…help
Brenda, several people have said this same thing and I have no idea! I’ve never, ever had that happen. Did you stir it in before you added your stuff?
Always enjoyed snow globes when I was a kid, my girls did too! So making these this weekend when I’ll be babysitting the grandkids, 3 and 5. Thanks!
If anyone is worried about glass with smaller kids or other special needs I found plastic empty snow globes to do this exact thing at Michael’s for 3.49. I am making them for some kids with sensory issues in our lives so glass was out of the question. I can’t wait, thanks so much for the idea!!!!!!
Sadness…I was so excited to do this and my son loved it…until the stuff in his snow globe came unglued the next morning and started floating. My daughter’s did the same thing (with smaller, lighter items), so I must have cheap hot glue. 🙁 I’m hoping to try again with better glue, because I love the idea!!
About 10 years ago, I made one for my aunt. I used Epoxy to seal my item to the lid, and also to seal the glass container and lid together. Worked perfectly.
Julie, try roughing up the lid with sandpaper first- that will help the glue stick!
Such a great idea! Tried it today… once with baby oil and once with just plain old water. I can’t keep my glitter from clumping together? It floats at the top or clumps at the bottom and on the picture. Any ideas? I got the glitter from the craft section at Smith’s. Should be fine I would think.
hmmm…I’m not sure about the glitter. i just use regular stuff from the craft store as well and didn’t have any clumping. Strange!
I knew I saved those old pizza sauce jars for a reason! I had four of them on a shelf, empty, waiting to be used for something. This is PERFECT! I just started my first ‘globe’ tonight. I’m in a small, small town in Germany so I’m not sure I’ll be able to find anyone to laminate my photos … but we’ll see! Fingers crossed. Thanks so much for sharing this brilliant idea!
I loved this so much, I can’t wait to try it with the girls this year! *I suspect I may enjoy it more than them, if that’s possible!!* Thank you so much for sharing (and making it so fun & easy to read to boot!).
PS. I enjoyed it so much, I gave you a shout-out on my blog & will be asking Santa for that laminating machine for Christmas! 🙂 Thanks again xo
(http://helenalujan.blogspot.com/2011/12/fun-find-friday_09.html)
I love these, they are so cute. I tried to make some the other day but ran into a couple problems and I was hoping you could help me out. I glued some aquarium rocks to the bottom(the round glass kind that are about the size of a nickel). I used hot glue, but when they got wet all of them came off. I was super sad. What can I do about this? Also, Ive tried a few different kinds of glitter but they all seem to float. Is there a kind that is better than others? Thanks!
I would rough up the jar lid with sand paper first; that should help. And I’m not sure about the glitter; a few people have had floating glitter problems, but all the glitter I’ve ever used has worked great!
So cute!! Question, when you cut the kids out, do you use anything behind them to help them stand up? Or just the hot glue?
Nope, just the hot glue, but that’s why I use that mound of pebbles on the bottom, and also I stick a tree behind each one to prop them up.
Hey I love your blog, and especially love this idea :)Can you please invite me to Pinterest? [email protected]. thanks!
What type of glue did you use to adhere the items to the jar lid?
I just used hot glue and my glue gun.
A-MAZ-ING! Love it! We’ll be doing this when my biggest kiddo comes home from college for Christmas!
I made this last night and my little laminated cousin is so cute staring back at me! But, the glitter seems to be attracted to him and won’t get off him, even when I shake the jar. There’s so much on there that I can’t see his features, just a goofy, glittery shape. Is there a special secret to keep the glitter from sticking to the laminated surface? I haven’t tried adding baby oil or glycerin yet, is that the magic trick? Thank you!
That’s so weird! Maybe a static problem or something? I honestly have no idea, that’s never happened to me!
I am having the same problem and it is driving me nuts. I used baby oil. Could that be the reason?
Try a drop of dish soap
Man I posted this on my website…mine looked terrible!! Yours are SO cute. I am just not meant to craft. Thanks for sharing though!
What sizes did you make the photos?
You just need to measure your jars and then create a photo to fit. I created an image in photoshop so it would fit perfectly; it will depend on your jar size and the size of the kid in your photo!
LOVE LOVE LOVE this! Thank you 🙂