My daughter went to the bowling alley the other day with her aunt and cousin and not surprisingly, came home with a few treats that she bought out of those 25 cent machines. We opened all of the little plastic containers and removed the prizes inside. I walked the containers over to the trash to pitch them and then stopped. Interesting shape, cute package but what could I do with them? Instead of tossing them, I placed them on my desk where they languished for about a week.
My inspiration came when my daughter and I were visiting my mom. Every time we go over there, the first thing she wants to play with is my mom’s nice snowglobe. She loves to shake it, watch the snow fall and then shake again. Unfortunately, it is glass and heavy so we must be very careful with it. However, we wouldn’t have to be careful if I made snowglobes out of the plastic vending toy containers! They were the perfect size and shape to make my daughter some personal, not-as-breakable snowglobes!
I relayed my thought to Chica and she said that her Girl Scout troop used to make them. All I needed was some silicone sealant
First, I found a cute snowman miniature ornament
Next, I applied the silicone sealant
Finally, after waiting almost the required 48 hours to dry, I put some glitter into the bottom half of the container and then filled the container with baby oil. The oil makes the “snow” fall slower and in such a tiny container, I wanted it to fall as slowly as possible. You can also just use water or I have heard of people using a mixture of water and light corn syrup. I held the filled container over the trash can to put the lid on since the snowman will displace some of your baby oil. Flip it over and you have a miniature snowglobe!
The seal on these containers is pretty tight but since my toddler would be playing with it, I decided to add a bead of silicone sealant
9 comments so far:
That’s brilliant. This would be an excellent gift to personalize. Thanks very much for the idea.
This is brilliant. My daughter would LOVE these, and they’d be really cute on the tree, too. I might have to give it a try.
Maybe.
Kelly <===== (NOT a crafty lady)
Awesome idea Im gonna use it for our preschool class. The kids wil love it!
i love this idea!!! got this idea from a craft book a few years ago though.
Mel, did they have any additional tips or ideas you remember?
thanks for the idea! love it
I’ve been thinking about doing this for several years, but never got around to it – now that I see how adorable yours turned out I’m determined to make some after all! Thanks for doing the test run, and for posting about it. Sometimes it takes a village to make a snowglobe!
xox,
Susan
I would like to suggest that these plastic containers are not durable enough for toddler play. Even sealed along the edge, there is the likelihood of cracking if dropped on a hard surface. On toxicity: after high lead levels in plastic from China, and not being screened for phalates (since toddlers especially are all “hand-to-mouth”, I don’t know that we can be confident of the safety of this inexpensive container, never intended as a toddler toy. Further, aspiration of baby oil can sometimes be fatal. Google for more information.
Diane, thank you for the warnings. I would imagine that aspiration of baby oil, water, corn oil, etc. could possibly sometimes be fatal. I would not suggest that you let your kids inhale it. At the time, Little Jo was old enough to know not to put things that weren’t food into her mouth. I would not recommend that children lick or eat these snowglobes.