Please Pass the Fruitcake: Vintage Snowglobes (post 9 of 12)

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For the past week, I’ve been revisiting traditional Christmas recipes and traditions. Today I have something slightly different in mind. Yes, it’s a Christmas craft!

I was watching this Rachael Ray segment last week where this guest she had on made snow globes (did anyone see this?). She made it sound pretty easy, so I decided to give it a whirl. I should mention here that I think I have a touch of an artsy/creative side, but I’m by no means a hard-core crafter. A visit to the craft store is maybe a once or twice yearly visit for me.

Here’s what you need:

• Small jars (such as canning jars, or old food jars)
• Glycerin (I found this at Michael’s for $2.99 near where they sell cake stuff)
• Glitter
• Christmas miniatures or ornaments (after visiting SEVERAL stores, I found adorable Victorian-style Christmas miniatures at Joann’s for 70% off!)
• Strong glue – I used gorilla glue
• Newspapers or other material to protect your counters

In all sincerity, the trickiest part of this whole thing for me was assembling everything I’d need. I ended up buying some small canning jars at WinCo for this craft. But I found a few others in my fridge, too (their food contents were old and almost done with anyways). I was able to remove the sticky labels with hot water and an S.O.S. pad.As mentioned above, I found these adorable miniatures at my Joann’s store. They were in a section where they had Christmas houses – I believe in art supplies? They were sold individually and were 70% off. That made the small figures about $1.49 each! The trees were a mere $0.41 each.
Next I decided which figure to place in which jar. This is where I could’ve planned a wee bit better. Some of my figures were too tall! Fortunately most of them were able to fit into one jar or the other. I noticed though that my trees were flaking a bit, so I opted to not use them in the snow globes. (I didn’t want them “shedding” in the water!)
At this point, my little daughter was cracking me up. She was narrating for many of the figurines, exclaiming, “help! help! I’m trapped!” Never a dull moment.
Now on the Rachael Ray show, her guest glued the figures to the bottom of each jar – right on the glass. I opted to glue the figures on the lids for two reasons: 1) it would be easier to get just the right position and 2) that way when you flipped it upside down, it would better resemble a globe.
For each figure, I used a good amount of the gorilla glue, and held it tightly in place for 30 seconds.
Then I let the glue dry for a good hour before completing the craft.
Once the glue was dry, I added some glitter, water (leaving only a small gap), and a few drops of glycerin. The glycerin allows the glitter to slowly move around in the water, giving the allusion of gently falling snow.
Add a little more gorilla/super glue to the inside of the lid before screwing it on.
Viola! That’s it! Simple, really!
Since I had some leftover miniatures and trees, I decided to make a table centerpiece. I simply arranged the snow globes and the leftovers on an old mirror I had. I accented with a few tealights.
I just love the way this turned out!
Now of course, these would make lovely handmade gifts…you could easily add a Christmas sticker or write on the bottoms of the lids in permanent marker.
But I’m going to be honest. I don’t know if I can part with any of them!
Here they are on my table…
They are also adorable in a window sill…
What do you think??

In case you missed the other features from this series:

• Roasted Chestnuts
• Yule Log
• Sugar Plums
• Figgy Pudding
• Mince Pies
• Egg Nog
• Wassail & Mulled Wine
• Roasted Game Hens with Chestnut Stuffing

Tomorrow I have one more vintage-inspired craft to share, and then two very…er…interesting? recipes on Thursday and Friday to conclude this series. I hope you’ve been enjoying it as much as I have!