we had a play date last friday, the first one since jb's birthday party back in mid-november. that means, we were long overdue for a get together. since the free-play time with two more "toy thieves" can get a little outta hand, i wanted to have a project that would keep their attention. their attention on their own little-special-something rather than being possessive over their toys. yes, i'm talking to my son. back to the project...
for two months, i have been searching and scouring for little figures and glass jars: we were to make our own snow globes! i found a 6-pack of santa dudes at jo ann's and the rest of them i had on hand or were old ornaments that i was ok with not putting on the tree again and some were from jb's little figurine collection.
in the garage, i found the small paper bag full of old baby food jars that i had cleaned out and given to ben for nails, screws or ammo casings - still in the same spot as when i placed it out there a year ago. (we all have the best intentions, right?!) so i took those back and did a once-over with a razor blade on all the jars. ben spray painted the lids and the dice for me. one way or another, he always seems to get sucked into my projects. love him.
dice, you may wonder? well, as i studied my pile of figurines, i realized that the lids were this deep, thus cutting off some of the figure on display. i decided they all needed a teeny, tiny step stool. but not really. dice would do. i went to 3 stores before i found a 10-pack of lose die. hooray! i love when it all works out. (doesn't it always?!) i found 6 tubes of different colored glitter, an epoxy to adhere the figurine to the lid (and/or dice) and some glycerin to assure the glitter falls s l o w l y.
the night before, i glued the figurines to the appropriate-sized lids. i boiled a pot of water and let cool, although, i should have done that earlier than minutes before we were wanting to fill up our jars! for next time, i must remember to boil the pot an hour or two before commencing project so there's no cool off time!
the kids picked their colors
(YAY! for no arguments over color choice!)
my pretty pretty friend
her pretty pretty daughter
my pretty pretty white-rainbowy glitter
mimi had the shaking technique down
we all finished adding our glitter, adding another drop of glycerin with each shake. i referenced marthastewart.com and there wasn't an exact ratio of water to glycerin. they used terms like "pinch" and "dash" and i was quickly annoyed like i am when my mom tries to relay a recipe of hers. maybe one day i'll learn to cook like that...
jb's finished snow globe.
he added red and blue glitter which i thought was a total snow globe faux pas but look!
the red and blue look great against the chubby penguin's purple hat!
he's so smart.
it goes: cute, chubby mary with cute, chubby baby jesus; penguin; cute, chubby eskimo; jb's penguin; teeny, tiny santa with a gingerbread cookie; and gaige's polar bear who's paws came unglued. whoopsie! i think not having a large gluing surface worked against him. but as we quickly noted, polar bears swim in bluish-green water so it makes sense that he's free to twist and turn!
super fun project. we're already scouring the house for other non-Christmas figurines so we can enjoy our glitter globes year round!
besties.
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