For Valentine's Day, I had this vision of making my children's dreams inside of a globe. They aren't snow globes because they have glitter in them to make them "dream like". It was suprisingly difficult to find objects small enough to fit inside the globes I got. I ended up searching for things like; Christmas ornaments, dollhouse figurines and miniatures.
Here is the supply list:
- Water globe
- Figurine (I ordered from Amazon, Etsy and Hobby Lobby)
- Craft resin
- E6000 glue
- Hot Glue
- Glitter
- Distilled Water
- Clear Elmer's Glue
- Optional: wood base (I made 2 and also used 2 furniture feet from an old couch)
- Optional: music box
Much of this process was trial and error and ended up being WAY more expensive than planned. Once you pick out your figurine, simply glue it on to the plug for the globe. In my case, most of the figurines wouldn't fit on the plug so I had to glue them to the inside of the globe. Careful if you end up having to do this too because glue gets everywhere!
Side note: Allow the E6000 glue to dry for a couple of days. If you let it sit overnight, like I did, you'll have figurines floating around in the water because they are no longer attached.
I made this sheet music to correspondence with the music box I got for my daughter. She loves the song, "Can't Help Falling in Love With You" by Elvis Presley. I laminated the sheet music and glued it to her piano. She also had this really cool microphone go in hers.
My son is dreaming for the day we build out on our property, for his globe he got a barn and a horse. He really, really, REALLY wants a horse once we move.
My best advice is to find a container you can set your globes in as you are adding the water and glitter. I tried my best to prevent air bubbles, but it's easier said than done. You'll want to add the distilled water and about 2-3 tablespoons of CLEAR Elmer's glue. Make sure to stir, stir, stir until the water turns clear again. The glue will help suspend the glitter when you shake it. Then add what ever glitter you want, I also added some confetti in mine.
As far as how much glitter is too much....you can definitely put too much glitter...you can also put not enough. My suggestion is start with less and add more. It's easier to add then to take it back out. Add your glitter, confetti or both and stir, stir, stir. You'll want to stir until your arm wants to fall off. Most of the glitter should sink to the bottom. Another helpful tip I found online was, if you have any glitter that's floating...fish it out with a spoon. The glitter may eventually settle as it should, but I wasn't willing to take the chance.
Now with air bubbles....
Once your glitter is all stirred in and you have the amount of glitter you like, fill up your globe with more distilled water....not quite to the brim, but almost. This was a messy step, so do it in the sink and slowly (because it sprays everywhere). Once you are ready to put the plug in, place some E6000 glue around the entire plug (towards the part that you glued on your figurines, that way as you press down, the glue will spread and hopefully not ooze out too much). Again, water will spray everywhere but this was the only method I found to help reduce air bubbles.
Progress Video:
You will want to glue the plug in before screwing the cap on. To glue, use E6000 glue. I put more E6000 glue on the inside of the cap before screwing it on.
You will imagine my surprise after letting the cap with glue dry for a couple of days....
I turned the globe over to shake it and 3 out of 4 of the globe's figurines broke off and went floating in the water. I was so upset. I was able to save 1 of them, my husband's that has a figurine of the kraken in it (inside joke). But, my oldest son and daughter's globes were toast. I ended up ordering bigger DIY globes from Etsy. They were a lot more expensive than the original globes but they were just what I needed to fit their figurines.
Here's a video of progress...
On the sphere globes, I got to use the furniture feet like I wanted to. I ordered this cool adjustable drill bit to drill out the hole on top to sit the globe into and also drill out the bottom to fit the music box in. Of course when trying to attach the water globe to the base, use E6000 glue. I had to order special screws to attach the music boxes, the one's it came with were just not long enough.
Here are the 2 larger water globes I ordered. I ended up just making a base for them to sit on, the globes are not attached. Underneath of the bases are music boxes too.
The finished product:
Here are some links of where I got each of the items:
Kraken Water Globe:
Barn Water Globe:
Tractor Water Globe:
Piano Water Globe:
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