DIY Fall Snow Globes

This isn’t the first time I’ve made a snow globe… Nope. The first time I made them I was new to Pinterest and my crafty blogging aspirations were not even formed yet. After seeing an amazing-looking tutorial, I printed out the directions and on my next visit to my sister’s house, we decided to get down with it. We ran out to the store and purchased everything just as the directions, well, directed.

Then we took everything to the house and proceeded to make beautiful snow globes! Unfortunately when we woke up the next morning all but one of them leaked out all of the water all over my sister’s dining room table and floor. And the one that didn’t leak? The angel was floating up against the top of the globe. It was a disaster. And since the tutorial advised to glue the lid on to prevent leakage, these things we’re unable to be salvaged.

And when Amy asked me to make snow globes for Mom Spark a part of me was all like “oh, freaking no!” and to be honest, I had quite a few trials when working out this tutorial BUT I finally worked it out to where I’m completely happy that you WILL be successful making your globes with these directions. If you have any questions or problems leave a comment and we’ll work this out!

To make your own fall snow globe you will need:

• Fall statue
• jar that your statue will fit into and has a nice shape
• fine glitter
• Sculpey (oven bake clay)
• acrylic paints
• clear fingernail polish
• E6000 glue (seriously get E6000 nothing else!)
• distilled water
• glycerin (found in the pharmacy, I think by bandages and whatnot)

First up you’ll need to make a platform for your statue to sit on the inside of the lid. This is something we realized during our failed family attempt at the globes… a good portion of your statue will be lost in the seal of the jar so we’re going to make a little pedestal for it.

You’ll first want to knead it really, really well.

And then roll it into a ball.

Flatten it out within the lid. Test the jar to be sure that you can still close this sucker up and that your clay isn’t going to prevent that.

Lightly place your statue on top of the soft clay. Place the lid on top. As you do, the statue will kind of move to accommodate having the lid put on. Carefully remove the glass and lightly press the statue into the clay. This way you’ll know exactly where to place it and have the jar still close up!

Take your clay and smooth out any wonky areas. Bake according to package directions to set.

Paint your clay pedestal to suit your statue and allow it to dry. Finish by sealing with clear fingernail polish.

Okay… see that glue in the pictures? It didn’t work. The next day the statue was floating at the top. Use E6000 for real, y’all.

Glue your statue to your base.

Put plenty of glue onto the base and set it onto the lid. Finagle the jar onto the lid, over the statue. Carefully remove the lid and press it down on the pedestal to secure the well. Allow all of this to dry for at least 24 hours, but up to 72 is even better.

To finish, fill the jar with distilled water and add a squeeze of glycerine. Next, add your fine glitter. Turn your lid/statue upside down and secure it to the jar. Keep a towel on hand in case your water overflows. Add more water if there is a very obvious lack of it when you turn the jar over.

Now – the better the quality of the glitter the better it seems to float. The finer the glitter, the better it floats (I tried glitter leaves and big fleck glitter and neither worked well at all). From what I can tell, the amount of glycerine used is totally an inexact science and really dependent on your glitter. If your glitter all floats at the top, you don’t have enough. If it all sinks to the bottom and doesn’t want to move when you shake the jar, you have too much. To save water, start with a little and add until you’re happy with the float of your glitter.

Give your jar a good shake and make sure that water isn’t leaking out anywhere. Now, remember how we DID NOT glue the lid on? If yours just doesn’t want to not leak, you can try to use a plumber’s tape around the threads to help seal the jar. This worked really well for mine (it had huge threads inside of the jar).

You may think the more glitter the better, but to be honest, it’s really easy to go from snow to blizzard! Add about a teaspoon of glitter and if you need more, add more.

Give your globe a little shake and watch the glitter swirl to your heart’s content!

Isn’t that little fall squirrel the cutest guy you’ve seen all day? And after I’ve worked out all of the kinks for you, it should be fairly easy to make, too 🙂 But remember, don’t hesitate to ask any questions or share problems in the comments!

Allison

A crafter since her earliest years, Allison spends a little time every day making something. She crafts, sews, paints, glues things onto other things, and is a firm believer that a life spent creating is a life worth living. Visit Allison’s blog, Dream {a Little} BIGGER.