The kids are somewhat insulated from all the chocolate and candy of the holiday because they [...]]]> Another candy holiday is upon us – Valentine’s Day. I’m not even worried about the kids, it’s me who can’t resist the row of brightly colored bags of candy at the grocery store. No, I’m serious. It’s a problem.

The kids are somewhat insulated from all the chocolate and candy of the holiday because they are only allowed to exchange non-candy valentines at school. Sure, I could pick up one of those inexpensive boxes of pre-printed cards and call it a day, but this year I decided to step up my game a bit and get crafty.

My kids are currently fascinated with snow globes. Sadly, we lost one of our “vintage” snow globes belonging to the kids’ older sister when she was a toddler, due to some exuberant play over the Christmas break. I was able to stop the tears with promises of a replacement snow globe, but I decided to check with my oracle, Google, to see just how hard it would be to make our own to give as valentines at school.

It turns out that making your own snow globe is a super-popular craft activity and can be made easily with just a few items from the craft and dollar stores. As a side note, I recently discovered that dollar stores and party supply stores are the best thing that ever happened to a mom who needs an endless supply of inexpensive gift and donation items for a kid’s school requirements. Honestly, it’s like I’ve been living in a cave.

All you need to make a snow globe is the following items:

• Small jar with a screw-on lid: I found small spice jars at a big box home goods retailer for .99 cents each and had two $5 off coupons.
• Modeling clay to attach objects to the lid of the jar.
• Floral wire to attach foam objects to the modeling clay.
• Plastic or foam items to display: We used pre-cut foam hearts, stars and assorted sports balls (for the boys). You could also use plastic animals or other objects. Make sure your object is narrow enough to insert into the jar once you attach it to the lid.
• Glitter
• Optional: Narrow ribbon to glue around the sides of the jar lids.

Instructions:

• To attach your objects, flatten a ball of modeling clay firmly in the lid of the jar. Push your object firmly into the clay so it will stay put once it’s in the water.
• For the foam objects, stick two identical foam shapes together over the end of a length of floral wire shaped into a J shape. Attach two identical items to the other end of the wire and firmly push the curved end of the wire into the clay. Press the clay around the base of the floral wire to make sure it is secure.
• Fill your jar with water, as close to the top as possible, leaving a bit of room for the water the object will displace.
• Sprinkle the amount of glitter you would like to have in the water. Gently ease the objects on the lid into the water and firmly close the lid. You could also seal the lid with a glue gun, but it’s not necessary. You can also glue plastic objects to the lid instead of using clay. I found that using the clay was much easier for my kids.
• We then attached a round white label to the lid of the jar, for the kids to fill out with their friends’ names and their names, but I think a Sharpie marker on the lid would have worked fine.

That’s it! It was a really fun craft to do with my kids and they made an extra snow globe each to keep. This took around three hours for us to do, and ended up costing me about $35 dollars for 36 snow globes. If you can find jars for less than a dollar each, the cost will be much lower. Remember, everything costs me double!

If making a snow globe doesn’t appeal to your kids, there are an endless amount of valentines you can make that don’t include candy and are easy and inexpensive.  Here are some of the ideas I came up with or found online:

• Melt broken crayons in heart shaped muffin tins. Attach a tag with your child’s name and the recipient’s name.
• Buy mini hand sanitizers for lunch boxes or backpacks and attach a heart-shaped tag.
• Scour the dollar store or party store for favors or animal figurines and attach a heart-shaped tag.
• Decorate pre-cut foam hearts using foam markers and write the names on the back.
• Decorate small craft photo frames with markers, stickers or glued embellishments and write the names on the back.

Happy Valentine’s Day! Now, I’ve got some sweet tarts to eat.

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