Last week we made Play-Doh at home (with its own challenges - take a look at the video on my You Tube Channel mummymadethis if you missed it!). This week we are making a Snow Globe for the first time. I’m always on the lookout for simple but slightly different things to do with my children and the Snow Globe was perfect for that.
It was surprisingly easy to make and a lot of fun, too. The part that was probably the most difficult was for the children to decide on what figure to glue into the jam jar. It needed to be something that they'd enjoy looking at regularly, but not something they loved so much, that they'd want back soon after the snow globe was finished... we ended up going with a Kinder Surprise figure that the children had and that seems to have worked really well.
The second challenge was getting the figure into the jam jar - make sure you pick a jar that has a large enough opening, so that you can easily hold the figure and firmly stick it to the bottom of the jar.
What you will need to make your Snow Globe
a clean jam jar
a waterproof figure of your choice (plastic and resin are good options)
strong clear glue (not for the children!)
2-3 tsp glycerine
½-1 tsp glitter
Method
1. Before you start, check that your chosen figure fits inside the jar (and that your hands do too!) and that the jar has a good seal
2. Apply some glue to the bottom of your figure and stick it to the inside of your jam jar. Then let this dry for 15 minutes or so
3. Once everything has set, place 2-3 tsp of glycerine into the jar and slowly top up with water, leaving a small gap at the top, so that there is enough space to 'shake' the snow globe.
4. Add ½-1 tsp of glitter and mix. We used a 'tube' of glitter from the Pound shop.
5. Seal the jar (you can line the rim of the jar with a small amount of strong clear glue and then stick this in place - but I didn't bother doing this and it was fine)
Some questions that I was asking myself before I started, that you might find useful...
Where do I get glycerine from?
You can find glycerine in the baking aisle of larger supermarkets. In ours it was right next
to the food colouring and flavourings.
What if I can't find glycerine?
According to the recipe we used, you can also use baby oil for a similar effect.
Do I need a special jar?
Make sure your jar doesn't leak. You can use an old jam jar, and if you want to be extra
safe, you can make sure it has a rubber seal on the inside (but we used one without and
that was fine too)
Do I need special water to top up the snow globe?
No, tap water is fine. If you have very cloudy water, you could use bottled water instead
to make sure the snow globe is clear, but we used normal tap water and it worked
perfectly.
The one thing I will say, is that our glitter continues to float to the top of the snow globe, rather than settling at the bottom. Now, I did a bit of research to find out more and apparently the reason for this is that we didn't use enough glitter. If it all sinks to the bottom, and doesn't really move when you shake the jar, you have used too much, but if it clumps at the top when it settles (like it did for us), you haven't used enough glitter! I tested the theory and added 2 more glitter tubes to our jar and low and behold the glitter started to sink to the bottom! I think we still need some more, for the glitter to settle properly at the bottom, so I guess, it is a bit of trial and error to see how much you need and get the 'float of your glitter' just right (who knew!?).
For those of you that are new to our site – every Monday evening we now do a quick 10-15 minute video conversation, talking all things family. You can find all past videos here.
Our mission is help make parents’ lives a little bit easier by sharing with you the things that do (and don’t) work in our family, keeping things real and building a supportive community of likeminded parents.
We want to cover topics that really matter to you and connect with you by sharing our stories, trials and tribulations, useful insights, lessons learnt, book reviews, topics that you have requested and things that I have tried as a mum of 3 that I have found helpful.
The aim is to give you a boost, a giggle or a virtual hug – and share something that you might find interesting or useful for your upcoming week with your family. I recognize that every family and every family situation is different – so some topics might resonate with you one week, but the topic the next week might not, and the one the week after might again – and that is ok.
I’d love your comments as we go too and do share any topic suggestions that you might have. Simply email me at anika@mummymadethis.co.uk or respond to me on Instagram or FB at mummymadethis.
Next week, we'll be making Bath Bombs - join us and see how we get on ;-)
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JULY 2023 UPDATE: OUR MONDAY NIGHT CONVERSATIONS HAVE BEEN REPLACED BY OUR TIP TUESDAY REELS. TIP TUESDAY, ALONG WITH ALL OLD MONDAY NIGHT CONVERSATION VIDEOS CAN BE FOUND ON OUR YOU TUBE CHANNEL HERE:
Playlist for Monday night conversations:
Playlist for Tip Tuesday conversations:
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