Between freezing temps, snowfall and sick days, cabin fever starts to set in pretty fast in February — especially with kids in the house. When you’re stuck indoors for days on end, make the most of the time together with some tasty treats and a fun craft project!
On a recent snowy afternoon, our family had the best time making these adorable heart snow globes to give to the grandparents for Valentine’s Day. They were super easy to make using glass jars and few simple craft supplies.
In my opinion, a proper snow day isn’t complete without a batch of rich hot chocolate and a bowl of buttery popcorn. Before we made our snow globes, the kids loved helping me brew up some homemade hot chocolate and went absolutely wild for the popcorn air popper.
Once everyone was properly fortified, it was time to get serious about our snow globes.
How to Make a Snow Globe:
Supplies:
To make a snow globe, you need a wide mouth glass jar (such as a canning jar), a small, waterproof toy or figurine to place inside your snow globe (we up cycled the plastic heart decoration from the top of a tube of Valentine’s Day candy…these are widely available at drugstores this time of year). You’ll also need some plastic or metallic glitter, a glue gun and or super glue or epoxy, bottled water (tap water may turn cloudy), glycerin or baby oil (makes the glitter fall more slowly) and some ribbon to decorate the bottom of your jar.
Step 1: Glue your toy or figured to the inside of the inner jar lid. You can use hot glue, super glue or epoxy for this step. Just make sure the glue is fully dried before continuing (see glue manufacturers instructions).
Step 2: While the glue is drying on the inner lid of your jar, use hot glue to add decorative ribbon to the outer ring lid.
Step 3: Pour bottled water into the jar. Water should be at least 3/4 full.
Step 4: Add 3 tablespoons of glycerin or baby oil to the water mixture. This will thicken the water mixture enough to slow the pace of the falling glitter. You may need to add more or less depending on the size of your jar.
Step 5: Check the water level by inserting the figurine and lid to make sure the water is nearly full but does not overflow. You may want to do this over the sink or a large bowl in case of overflow.
Step 6: Remove the lid and add glitter to the water mixture.
Step 7
Step 7: Carefully position inner lid on top of jar. If your jar has writing on one side, be sure to position the figurine so that the front is visible through the unmarked portion of the jar. Add the outer ring lid to seal (if desired, seal the outer lid in place with hot glue or super glue).
: Sip your cocoa 😉
Step 8: Carefully position inner lid on top of jar. If your jar has writing on one side, be sure to position the figurine so that the front is visible through the unmarked portion of the jar. Add the outer ring lid to seal (if desired, seal the outer lid in place with hot glue or super glue).
Step 9: Turn your jar over and watch the glitter fall! Repeat a zillion times (or until Spring arrives)! Hang in there folks.
