Remember how I shared that I totally didn’t enjoy making snow globes last week?
Yeah, it really only got worse.
I’ve seen this idea a billion times all over Pinterest, and it looks so easy and oh so fun, so I figured there was no way we could screw it up. I was wrong.
We started off with a few cute supplies from Hobby Lobby – some mini trees, glitter, and a few other accessories like reindeer and some street lamps. We plopped down on the floor and got to arranging – I went with a classic set-up…
And Corey tried something a little more complicated (it lights up and everything!).
We glued our stuff to the lids of our mason jars and left it for the night to dry. A few days later, once it had set up completely, we came back to add the water and the glitter, and that’s kind of where everything fell apart. We filled the jars with water and excitedly added some glitter….and it floated.
Womp womp.
We tried a few different things to get it to sink, but no luck. We tried a few other options, like chunkier glitter and even those faux snow flakes you can buy for villages, but nothing really worked. We knew we could add something to the water to help the glitter sink, but there was another problem – the dye on my trees immediately started to come off and stain the water black. So not cute.
We spent a few minutes being completely frustrated at how big of a failure this was, and then we decided to just start fresh and make no-water snow globes. We set all the stuff on the windowsill to dry over a few hours, then we started all over.
This time, we just added glitter to the bottom of the jar and screwed the lid on. Done! And really, in the end, it’s way easier this way.
So, this project was kind of a big fail – we didn’t get to do it the way we had planned, and they really aren’t as cute as I had pictured them in my head. But I’m so over it – they’ll sit on our windowsill until Christmas is over, and maybe next year once I’ve had some separation from them I’ll like ‘em a little more.
Have you had any Christmas project failures this year?
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I’m sorry the snow globes didn’t work out! I attempted to do stocking with some left over wood letters this year and that was a big fat fail. Now I’m left with some sparkly letters with no place to go (thankfully I was able to return the stockings and used the money to just order some embroidered ones).
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11. December - 7:16 amHmmmm. The Martha Stewart tutorial says to use distilled water and add a drop of glycerin. I wonder if that really works. http://www.marthastewart.com/276346/how-to-make-a-snow-globe/@center/307034/christmas-workshop#200961
Sorry it was a fail. Can’t win em all, I guess!
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Amanda Reply:
December 11th, 2012 at 4:42 pm
It totally does! I was just frustrated with the leaky dye, and from what I’ve heard glycerine is actually supposed to help it fall slower, so it’s more for if your glitter sinks super fast. I think our problem was that our glitter was too fine.
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When I made these, we used baby oil instead of water. I’m guessing that might be your problem with the glitter floating.
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Amanda Reply:
December 11th, 2012 at 4:41 pm
Ah! Baby oil! That would have been smart…
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Keeping it real!
I’m TERRIFIED To try this one because, knowing me, water, glitter, pieces, glass and who knows what else will scatter all over the floor!
Y’all did a great job!
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11. December - 10:26 amI’ve done this and added the glycerine. It worked like a charm. They’re still cute, even if the snow is refusing to land on anything…
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11. December - 10:42 amI’ve done this and added the glycerine. It worked like a charm. Yours are cute, even if the snow is refusing to land on anything…
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Amanda Reply:
December 11th, 2012 at 4:41 pm
I thought about doing the glycerine, but since the trees were staining the water, I felt like it wasn’t worth it, haha.
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That’s what I ended up doing, too – no water. Mainly because I was worried about them leaking!
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11. December - 1:33 pm