Frost vs. Snow

Elliot's snow globe. The tree came from our dinosaur scenery, but it was a little too large, so I chopped it down a titch.

I've been salivating over the craft possibilities with these little beauties for some time.

All the boys' snow globes.

I'm happy to say that today in Elliot's co-op preschool, I taught about Jack Frost (letter was J and the topic this month is seasons/Christmas). So I thought snow globes fit the bill for the craft.

 

I found these instructions at Martha Stewart, where I got the basics for how I made the snow globes.

 

However, I discovered a few things myself and had to problem-solve a few issues unique to making these with kids.

 

First, I started with larger jars, like pickle and salsa jars.

 

But last night when I ventured to Hobby Lobby for the glycerin (I got a large bottle for $2.50 on sale. We maybe used .0001% of it) and our figures (I got the reindeer 6 to a pack for 99 cents), I found out the deer were much too small for our jars.

 

Luckily, I have a baby and food sometimes comes in small, glass bottles. Bam!

 

Martha will tell you to sand the bottom of your lid and use clear-drying epoxy. I foresaw that as a rabbit hole of disaster with 4 preschool-aged boys.

 

So, I used hot glue (from my low-temp gun) and added a piece of Styrofoam to the lid to lift the scene.

I then hot glued the figures on the Styrofoam and even stuck them down a bit into the foam.

I added distilled water, glitter and the tiniest bit of glycerin.

Unfortunately, I discovered last night on a test-run that baby jars leak a tiny bit when tipped, so I added hot glue around the base of the lid once it was screwed on. This will serve double, since it'll prevent curious hands from freeing the jar's contents.

Loved it. So did the boys.

In all, I spent $4.50 on the four snow globes ... and that's with a TON of leftover distilled water and glycerin. Granted, I had quite a few of the materials in the recesses of my craft closets.

Tomorrow I think I'll try making some of the button ornaments to make snow globes with the bigger jars.

Bang-a-rang.