Faux Snow Globe Gift Jars

I used to put Christmas treats in glass jars - candy, party mix, recipe fixings. People would ooh and ahh, eat the contents, and what did they have? An empty jar. They should be left with something worth keeping, something they could cherish.

AHA!

A Faux Snow Globe Jar! What this Instructable presents is a way to combine several of the crafts I make (Some are Instructables I have shared) and other techniques to make something that was a big hit at my Elves' Fanily Workshops at several libraries (the motto - "Why should elves have all the fun?").

• Mason-type jar or any lidded glass jar. For this Instructable, I used a pint/2 cup/16-ounce jar. The Gallery samples are quart/4 cup/32-ounce jars
• Clear shot glass, plastic tumbler, candle holder (The sample for the how-to uses a candle holder), or half of a plastic fillable ornament (The Gallery at the end uses half-dillables)
• Cotton ball (a.k.a. Cotton Wool)
• Candy, party mix, cereal, nuts, raisins, pretzel sticks, recipe ingredients, or anything you wish to put inside the gift jar
• Hot glue gun and glue gun sticks
• Ribbon
• Decorations: pompon balls (1/2 inch: a pompon is a small fluff ball, a pompom is a large artillery cannon), small plastic figures or toys
• Scissors
• Measuring tape or ruler (to see how wide the lid is, and to measure possible globe toppers)

Supplies for:

Tree

• Green paper or construction paper, cut to a 3-inch square

Snowman

• 3 pompon balls
• 2-inch piece of brown wire or a thin twig
• Black and orange markers
• Yarn

Skier

• Wire, plastic-insulated, 20-24 gauge

For more complete instructions, follow the link to the Kirigami Christmas Tree in Green Instructable.

• Take the 3-inch paper square (larger, if you have a larger snow globe cup) fold it on the two diagonals, turn it over, and fold it on the two medians. Collapse it to four triangular flaps.

• F,or each flap, press it in along the fold to make it tlaplets. When each flap has been doubled, trim off the lower tails to leave a triangle.
• Make two sets of cuts from the edge toward the center, but not all the way. (In the Instructable, using an 8.5-inch square, four sets of cuts are made. With a smaller square, four cuts would be too close)
• For each of the lower cut segments, fold the upper outside corner until the fold touched as close to the bottom of the segment as possible. Repeat this with all the segments of each flaplet.
• Fluff it out, stand it up, and you have a little tree!

• Hot-glue two of the pompon balls together. Glue a two-inch piece of wire onto one end of the balls for arms. Glue the third ball to the wire.
• Using a black marker, make dots below the arms for coal buttons. Make dots above the arms for the mouth and eyes. Use an orange marker to make a dot for the carrot nose.
• Take a short piece of yarn, unravel it , and separate one ply from the rest. tie it around the neck of the snowman as a scarf, and trim the ends to the length you think best. You now have a snowman!

For more complete instructions, follow the link to the Wire Skier--a Suji Project Instructable. The dimensions here are smaller, because the space on a pint jar is less.

• For the skeleton/armature/skis, fold a 16-inch piece of wire in half, and in half again. Fold a 16-inch wire in nearly half for the top and sleeves. Wrap the shorter half up 5 times around the four core wires. Fold down one core and wrap out the arm 10 times. Wrap the longer half up around the first set of wrappings 5 times. Fold down another core and wrap out that arm 10 times.
• For the pants, fold another 16-inch wire in almost-half. Wrap the shorter half down the core 3 turns, divide the lower core into 2 groups of 2, and wrap out one leg 15 times.
• Wrap the longer half down, around the first wraps, 3 times. Wrap the other leg 15 turns. Wrap a 6-inch wire , going up around the two remaining core wires, 5 tomes, and 3 times down. Trim the wrapping wires.
• Fold and trim the wires for the hands. Spread out the ski wires, and trim them to fit into the faux snow globe.
• Bend the skier's arms, legs, and body into a skiing pose, and you have a skier!

• If your jar has a two-part lid, hot-glue the insert to the rim. Fluff out the cotton ball and glue enough of it to cover the part of the lid that will be inside the glass or plastic cover. Glue the tree, snowman, and skier (or any other decorations you wish to use) onto the cotton layer.
• Hot-glue the cover onto the lid assembly.
• Make sure the lid fits the jar.
• Unscrew the lid, and fill the jar with the treats you wish to give. I like to layer the contents, but some people prefer to dump everything all together into the jar. Use the method you like best.

• Hot-glue a ribbon around the base of the globe area to cover the glue securing the cover to the lid.
• Now, give it to someone you care about - family, friend, or potential significant other.

These are some samples that were made by families at library programs I have led. They use fillable ornament halves for the snow globe cover You don't have to make the tree, snowman, and skier. I found a container full of little plastic figures (animals, toy soldiers, children, wreaths), and people put them in their snow globes and on their jars. Have fun! Use your imagination!

I enjoyed sharing this Instructable with you. If you enjoyed it, vote for the 2020 Mason Jar Speed Challenge.

If you make this project, share pictures. GO FOR IT!