This strays from my typical Boom Box beatdown posts. Today is my rest day so I thought I share something to spread the holiday cheer. So if this is not up your alley, I’ll be back at my normal routine tomorrow! Last year I kind of just threw it in at the end of my posts… oh by the way look at these ornaments I made. And looky there she made cakeballs too! So today you just get Christmas fun!

I don’t know if I had seen these out of the corner of my eye and somehow my brain absorbed it or what but I had the idea of making my own snow globes. I’m not super ORIGINAL when it comes to crafts, I know this, but I had no idea homemade snow globes were plastered all over the interwebs. Nonetheless I decided I wanted to pursue this project for teacher gifts because A. I like doing something personal and special for teachers. B. I had several mason jars lying around. C. Who doesn’t love a snow globe?

It’s one of the easiest craft projects I’ve done, it just takes a couple of days because you have to let the glue set for 24 hours. So here’s what you need:

Jar (any jar, pasta sauce, pickle, mason, etc.)
Distilled water (important otherwise water stains/mineral deposits may form)
Glitter/Snow
Figure (plastic or glass, something that won’t fall apart or rust in water)
Glycerin (I tried it, didn’t like it, didn’t use it but feel free to experiment)
Clear Acrylic Spray (optional – I used to spray the ornaments I bought just in case they weren’t so waterproof)
Glue (glass bond, locktite, hot glue, something WATERPROOF!)
Ribbon (option – to tie/glue around lid)

So for me, waiting till the last minute of course, I was hard pressed to find plastic or glass Christmas-y figures. I opted for poly resin like ornaments. Not sure if they would hold up in the water, I went ahead and sprayed them down with a Water-Resistant Clear Acrylic. While those were drying I glued my mason jar lids since they were the kind where the middle of the lid pops out. After my ornaments dried I glued them to the mason jar lids. And now the waiting. The glue package said to let the glue set for 24 hours.

In that time frame I decided I wanted more than just glitter but not sure what. I wanted to personalize it. So I printed Merry Christmas, teacher last names, and the year on transparency sheets. Cut those out and had them ready to put in the jar when it came time to fill the jars up.

After the 24 hours you are ready to assemble your snow globes. Fill your jar up with the distilled water. Make sure to leave some room for when you put the lid on with your figure. Add glitter. I probably used about 1 tbs. It will be to your preference. Add 1-2 tsp per cup of water of glycerin. NOTE: THE GLYCERIN MADE MY GLITTER CLUMP UP SO I USED ONLY WATER. I TESTED WITH BOTH AND THERE WASN’T MUCH DIFFERENCE IN HOW IT LOOKED OR THE WAY THE GLITTER FELL. I THINK IF YOU USE SNOW THEN GLYCERIN MAYBE NECESSARY BUT NOT WITH THE GLITTER.

I then screwed the lid on the jar, checked to see if I had enough water, shook it up to make sure it’s what I wanted then took lid off. Dried off the inside edge of lid and the outside rim of jar.

I added glue to the edge of jar and then put lid back on. I left the jar upright so that glue could set overnight. While that was drying I went ahead and glued some ribbon to the lid as well. By the morning these snow globes were ready to go. As you can see in the final picture, I NOT SO CRAFTILY wrote Merry Christmas and my kiddos name on the bottom of snow globe (lid).

There you have it, easy but takes more than one evening. It’s fun too. The kids loved them and hopefully their teachers will as well! Have a MERRY WEDNESDAY! And you know the drill be AWESOME!