DIY Snow Globes!

Every year Kim and I get together with the kids during the month of December to do something Christmas related. I didn't really want to do anything in regards to food this year...although they did come over for lunch. While I was looking online for ideas of fun things to do, I found this step by step guide for how to make DIY snow globes.

I texted Kim and asked her what she thought. She was up for it...so we divided up the things we'd need to buy and planned our lunch and craft day for December 9th. 

 

For the inside I bought a bunch of Christmas Village characters and trees. Because the lip of the mason jars are so deep, Kim saved a bunch of caps from RX bottles and wine bottles and I had some water bottles caps for us to glue to the lids. This made it so whatever was inside the jar was propped up and was able to be seen better. 

Of course Jackson decided he didn't like any of the Christmas options so he chose to put a Beyblade in his. This particular Beyblade took a special launcher that had broken so he wasn't able to use it anyways. Owen chose the tree and the boy getting ready to throw a snowball. 

The instructions online said that you could use epoxy to glue the pieces to the lid, E-3000 or any type of super glue. I found this glue at Lowe's called Rapid Fuse. It said that it sets up in 30 seconds. I thought that was awesome since I doubted the kids would want to wait for hours for the other glue to set. Well turns out that set and cure are two different things. It might set in 30 seconds....it actually didn't, but it wouldn't cure for 30 minutes...actually a little longer than that. The kids didn't mind though...they just played and Kim and I worked on one of my Christmas puzzles. 

We actually made two snow globes with the choir singing. One of them the cap stayed, but the other one the glue could not get the cap to stay so I just glued the choir straight to the lid. Zeke chose the snowman and lantern. See that tiny white rectangle sticker on the right next to the snowman. That comes into play later! 

We filled a measuring cup with distilled water and then added a few teaspoons of glycerin to thicken the water. Then we filled the jars with how much water we thought they needed. We did go back and add more water so there wouldn't be so much empty space at the top of the snow globe. 

Remember that sticker? Well I had peeled it off of the bottom of one of the figurines because I wanted the glue to have as much surface area in order to adhere it to the lid. I just stuck in on the piece of paper and didn't think anything of it. Then I finished Zeke's snow globe and noticed that it somehow had gotten stuck to the belly of his snowman. Then Zeke said that he had done it on purpose! He wanted there to be a 'Made in China' sticker on his snowman's belly. He's such a silly kid! 

Here his is all shaken up! 

Here's Ella with her choir! 

They fit in this jar so perfectly! 

It's a snowstorm in there! 

After 30 minutes of letting the figurines cure we tried to put them in the jar. Zeke's snowman fell off in the water and I had to go fishing for it. That's when we decided to glue them again and let them cure longer. I don't remember exactly what happened, but Owen's boy ended up getting decapitated. Thankful the Rapid Fuse was able to fix that! 

What a fun snow scene! 

Owen made his almost a full whiteout! 

The funny thing we didn't think about was the green colored tree. Now that Owen's has been sitting for a while the water has turned a light shade of green and so has the boys face. It honestly gives it this nostalgic old time look! 

Jackson with is Beyblade! 

Since Jack chose a Beyblade and it was so short it seemed silly to use the same size jar as the other kids. Kim had brought a smaller jar so she let Jack use that. It worked perfectly! 

As for the extra choir snow globe we gave that to the Kuch's as part of their Christmas present. I knew that Christina would really appreciate something that was homemade. It was a super fun craft and I've been really impressed with how they've held up!