DIY Gift How-To: Recycled Jam Jar Snow Globe

I love hearing the ways people reuse our jam jars -- salad dressing shaker, shot glass, and spice storage are some of my favs. But the most fun, creative and splashy? Making snow globes. How awesome are snow globes? As a little girl, I used to endlessly flip my mom's elaborate snow globes, watching the snow move around tiny alpine villages and castles, like glimpsing a shrunken and encapsulated world. I can't profess to be an expert, but with modest craft skills and mostly recycled items, you can make very cool snow globes.

HOW-TO MAKE YOUR OWN SNOW GLOBES

Supplies:

1. Cool tiny things to stick to your jar lid. Make sure they're ceramic or plastic (they'll be in water). Try art stores or flea markets or your local weird dollar store.

2. If you want to paint things inside or your lid, you'll need oil-based enamel paint. For the rest, sandpaper, epoxy or waterproof glue such as Gorilla Glue, distilled water, glitter, and glycerin (available at drugstores, usually in the form of constipation cures or at craft supply stores).

Steps:

1. Start with a jam jar and lid, and your figurines.

2. If you want to get pretty with it, you can paint the otherwise boring jar lid with an oil-based enamel paint. Then sand the inside of the lid so it's rough and can handle the epoxy. With epoxy or waterproof glue like Gorilla Glue, adhere your figurines, rocks, shells or other doodads to the inside of the lid, and let the epoxy/glue dry.

3. Fill the jar almost to the top with distilled water; add a little glitter or crushed Styrofoam  for snow and a dash of glycerin to keep the glitter suspended (*note you can use baby oil or mineral oil instead of water + glycerin, but sometimes this makes the glitter clumpy, plus it's expensive if you're making more than one). Don't go too crazy with the glitter, it can stick to the lid. Gently screw on the lid, taking care to not muss your figurines. Now flip the jar back and forth -- let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!