On the tenth day of crafting… 🐧SNOW GLOBES☃️ because it had to be done!

Welcome back to our 12 Days of Crunchy Christmas Crafts for the whole family! So far, we’ve made: pinecone bird treats, gingerbread nativities, “snowed-in” candle crafts, fruity festoons, foraged ornaments, some homemade bathtime bliss, repurposed Christmas card boxes, and ornaments for book-lovers! WHEW.

Today’s craft breaks a few of my Crunchy Christmas Craft Rules, but it has been a box on my “Motherhood Bucket List” for a long, long time. So, I decided it was time to check it. . . or myself. The truth is, I wanted to be able to say one day, “Oh yeah, I made snow globes with our kids!” And made them we did. And do I have tales to tell for it, too? Yes. Yes, I do.

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Glitter…🎶It sees you when you’re sleeping, it knows when you’re awake!🎵

Crafting Confession: I’ve been afraid of making snow globes for my entire adult life. Our son, the Captain, has been asking to make one together since he could point to them at the store and shout “snow glow!” Uggg. Why do kids have to be so cute? Every December, I take a deep breath and write “project snow globe” on our Christmas Fun List (which seems ironic) and every year I push it further and further down the column until Christmas Day arrives to promptly kick it three inches to the right under the heading “Maybe Next Year.” This annual holiday humming and hawing around has been going on for nearly a decade now.

So, I decided to face my fears, woman-up, pull myself up by my slipper straps, and get ‘er done already! And we did. We made snow globes! And I learned a very important lesson: the only thing to fear is fear itself. AND GLITTER.

Oh, my friends. There was glitter, and there was glue, and there was water, and there was glitter, and there was glycerin, and there was glitter. All at the same time. At one point there was a glitter soup. Somehow, I inhaled some glitter and had a strange nose-blowing experience I hope never to repeat. Goldilocks got a fleck in her eye and had to flush it out with little handfuls of water topped off with tears. Papa had glitter on his face at dinner and he wasn’t even in the house during craft time! If you ever need to teach kids about the spreading of germs and happen to be a fearless warrior . . .

“Why? Why did I invite that bear to lunch?”

Making snow globes is supposed to be amazing and magical, so I’ve heard. Much like Las Vegas. And then you get yourself there, see the lights, see a few sights, and abruptly ask, “can we go home now?” And yet. . . did you also need to see it somehow? Did you need to go to that wild, fake, glittering land so you could say “yeah, I’ve been there. HA! What a kick.” I think I did, anyway.

Yes, I needed to go to Glitterville. And I have to say, the kids really enjoyed it. But I also don’t need to go again! 😆

How about you? Do you need to check snow globe off your motherhood bucket list? We’ve got your mess. . . I mean tutorial right here . . . dutifully documented for you. 🫣

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~SLIGHTLY-CRUNCHY SNOW GLOBES~

“Ohh!!! It’s an actual snow globe!” -The Captain, age 9

“Yay! It’s great! There’s not too much glitter!” -Goldilocks, age 6 (I do not endorse this statement)

1.) Gather supplies.

2.) Cover lids in fabric.

Cut out fabric rounds larger than your lids and mod podge the fabric just onto the top of the lid. Smooth the fabric onto the lid well, then snip to the sides of your lid every inch or two. Add more mod podge to the sides of your lid and fold up the fabric strips onto the sides. Allow to dry and then give the excess a trim.

3.) Hot glue your character onto the lid of your jar.

Use a good amount of hot glue to ensure your character holds tight.

*Optional: add some glue around your character and tap on fake snow. But be careful not to add glue too close to the edge of the lid to where it won’t close! Yeah, we may have had to learn that one the hard way.

4.) Let fully dry for a few minutes.

5.) Add about a teaspoon of glycerin to two cups of filtered water.

The glycerin supposedly helps the water evaporate more slowly and is supposed to help the glitter not clump but . . .

6.) Deep breath. Add glitter to dry jars. (A little goes a long way.)

NOTE: we added too much glitter the first attempt. If you add too much it just all clumps together in one big, gross, glitter cloud. Less is more.

7.) Add glycerin & water mixture and stir well.

8.) Fill jar nearly to brim. Apply silicone around the inside rim of lid, then screw the lid on tight over a sink (I warned you). Let fully dry overnight.

We learned the hard way that most jar lids are not really, truly watertight. So, after the kids went to bed, Papa grabbed the silicone gun and the kids’ globes were “magically” perfect by morning! Leave it to a man to bring a silicone gun into project snow globe. 😆

9.) Add a ribbon and celebrate contained glitter!

I have to admit it. These jars bring joy.

Thanks for crafting with us today, friends!

Love, ~Candace Arden