All these years, I haven’t forgotten snow globes we made out of baby food jars when I was in kindergarten. I loved those things! So when—as the snow was yet again coming down outside our office windows—Mel and I started putting together our list of things to make for Valentine’s Day, I saw my chance to create these again.
Back in the day, we used some pretty awful plastic flowers (I think we were making our snow globes as Mother’s Day presents), but I thought it might be fun to try making some using old castoff toys and gumball machine trinkets. Here’s how it works. . .
(To download a printable PDF of these instructions, click here.)
What you’ll need
• small glass jar (my favorite turned out to be not the standard baby food jar but a jar that horseradish came in)
• glue gun
• white glitter
• distilled water
• small toy or plastic flower or greenery
What to do
1. Wash jar and remove label. (If label leaves sticky residue, rub it with vegetable oil, then wash with soap.)
2. Wash and dry jar lid and toy.
3. Glue toy to inside of lid using glue gun. (Note: some of the lids didn’t have linings of any sort, so the inside of the lid was exposed metal. Because the inside of the lid is the “ground” for the snow globe, I wanted it to be white. So I cut circles out of white yogurt container lids and glued them into the jar lids.)
4. Put a small amount (approx. 1 tsp) of glitter in jar. (Amount depends on size of jar.)
5. Fill jar to brim with distilled water.
6. Carefully screw lid onto jar. (You probably will want to do this over the sink.)
7. Turn jar over and let it snow!
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A couple of notes:
I found that, surprisingly, some baby food jars, once opened, will not re-seal. So, when choosing the jar to use for your snow globe, check to make sure it will seal before you get started. (I ended up having to put glue around the edges of my jar lid before screwing it on, to ensure that no water would leak out.)
After making these, I read online that adding a tiny bit of glycerin will keep the “snow” up in the air longer, in case you want to try that.
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Photos by Melyssa Holik
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It’s toy time at the Mothering house! Product Review Editor 
Photos, from top: 1) my favorite so far of the toys Bram has put together (dolls artfully arranged by Bram); 2) the UPS guy makes a delivery at Candace’s desk; 3) Candace at her desk, last week, surrounded by boxes; 4) Bram, stopping by several afternoons this week to do assembly, thereby proving that he got his dad’s toy-building genes, for sure.
Every other month is crunch time in these here parts—that special time when we at Mothering magazine focus on putting out a, well, a magazine. We’re in the throes right now, working on the November–December issue, which features . . . toys! Our annual toy review. Articles editor Candace Walsh, who also does all our product reviews, has been busy soliciting the very best in new natural toys, and they’ve been arriving for months now. It’s been a trip—the office is awash with toys, the staff is abuzz with toy talk, and visitors to the office are just plain confused.
© 2009 Mothering Magazine