Thursday, December 6, 2012

DIY Snowglobes: Upcycled Jars

While I'm not sure I'll ever be able to give up shopping, I love giving handmade gifts at Christmas.
For years I've been making photo calendars, and since Eleanor was little I've been making ornaments.
In addition to these favorites, this year the kids and I are making snowglobes.


Thanks to my Mom and our baby who wants nothing to do with baby food I had an assortment of fun jars to work with. You really don't need much for this project. Here's the list:

1. Empty jars
We used pasta sauce, soup, hot pepper, olive, and baby food jars.
Here's a link to a cute snowglobe done with jelly jars.

2. Fake snow
I bought a huge bag at Michaels that will probably last me a lifetime.
Didn't seem huge at the time but you don't need much.


3. Bottle Brush Trees
My favorites ended up being dollhouse size trees from Hobby Lobby and miniature trees from Michaels. I had purchased a huge bag of assorted tree sizes but none of them really fit the jars I used.

4. Tiny reindeer or other figurines
We used dollhouse sized reindeer from Hobby Lobby, too.


5. Cotton balls

6. A hot glue gun and glue

Optional: acrylic paint, glitter, tiny snowflake paper punch, empty spools/bobbins.

After you've gathered all the thingsyou need, you'll want to prepare the jars.
I just ran mine through the dishwasher with a load. We decided to paint the jar lids.
This step can easily be skipped, especially if your jar lids don't have words on them. But the kids enjoyed doing it.


Next, glue your trees and figurines to the inside of the jar lid. As you can see we actually glued our trees and reindeer onto spools prior to gluing them to the lids so they'd be higher up and more visible. This also allows you to use more snow.


Next you'll want to cover any areas you don't want seen with cotton. Make sure to glue it down or it will go flying. Also be sure your jar will fit over your creation and you can see everything in the jar before going to the next step.


Next add snow, glitter, and tiny snowflake paper punches to the jar. You won't need much, just enough to cover the very bottom of your little scene.




We made a few inside plastic ornaments to see how that woud turn out too.



Didn't these turn out adorable? Isn't Henry Adorable?!

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