DIY Snow Globes

On Wednesday, January 25, Mamaw & I went shopping to a couple different stores while the older boys were at preschool. I invited her to go along to ACMoore, and she brought a coupon with her (thanks, Mom!). I bought all sorts of things I needed to make some crafts with the boys. When I went to check out, I realized I had left my wallet in the car. Whoops! I was glad she was there to stay with the cart as I ran out to get it.

We left there and went to Giant where I needed some groceries to make some healthier meals. She asked me if I had my wallet as we got out of the car "yep, I have it!" Only when I went to check out, I DIDN'T! I ran out to the car in a panic while she once again stayed with Ryan. I was terrified it was gone. But, I found it where it must have fallen out of my pocket. Praise God it was there and in tact! I was so thankful for all the healthy food we had in our fridge after that trip. It's a lot easier to eat better if you have things on hand. :)

Then on Friday, January 27, the boys & I worked on a craft I saw in my Family Fun Magazine. We were making our own snow globes. When I saw the pictures and the description, I thought it was something we could easily do and my little Caleb Luke LOVES snow globes!

First, I saved Ryan's baby food jars as he was done eating them and washed them. Then, the night before we painted the lids with acrylic paint I had. While it was "non-washable" I think we should have had something specific for metal lids. It came off as we would screw the tops back on, which was a little annoying. But, I keep having to remind myself that kid crafts are not meant to be perfect but rather fun!

I let the boys fill their jars with water. The recipe said don't fill it the whole way, but I think we could have done ours a little more. Oh well. I helped them glue our items onto the jar lids. For two of them, we used little tiny animals we had been given with trees to make a scene. They bottoms of these animals were straight so they were easy to glue using the cement glue I bought at the store. It said to leave it sit for a couple hours, so the boys and I went for a walk and played while they were drying.

For the last one, I copied an idea from Pinterest in using the top of a 2" foam ball and twisting a pipe cleaner into a heart shape, wrapping it together and pushing the ends through the foam, then cutting off the excess and gluing the flat service to the lid. It worked okay, but I would have liked them to explain about what size heart. I will make a slightly smaller one next time round. But, again - not perfect but we're creating memories rather than artwork, right?

After the kids filled their jars with water, we added a few drops of glycerin (which I had picked up at the store). Then we measured out a teaspoon of white/silver glitter, which you can see Joshua doing in the above picture. We twisted the lids back on and shook them up. It worked! But, my baby jars weren't completely spill proof. Only one of them seemed to not leak. Not sure why? They are cute nonetheless.