by Deirdre Gould

Created on: August 20, 2009

Art projects are an entertaining and productive way to interact with children or peers, not only will you have fun in the process of creation, but participants will have a product (or souvenir) to show for the experience. The biggest issue with art projects is finding age appropriate crafts that everyone can enjoy. One craft that translates well from elementary age children through adults are snow globes. Because they can be personalised, snow globes can be created for any holiday, to hold a memorable photograph or small reminders of favorite trips. With a little assistance from an adult, even young children can make durable, leak proof snowglobes from the most basic of supplies. Glass baby food jars are the perfect size and shape for homemade snow globes and can be easily sealed to prevent leaking. In addition to a baby food jar you will need:

Baby or mineral oil

Glitter or plastic confetti

1 hard boiled egg or clean, dry egg shell

miniature figures (these can be bought, found or crafted from clay) or a small laminated photograph

decorative ribbon

hot glue gun

To begin with, soak the baby food jar in very hot water in order to cleanly remove the label. If there are leftover glue spots these can be scrubbed off or gently scraped off. When both exterior and interior are clean and dry, it is time to set your scene. Have the child arrange their scene the way they like on their baby jar lid. When the scene is arranged to their satisfaction, fix the elements with small dabs of hot glue. If you are using a laminated picture, put a long string of glue in the center of the lid and push the photo into it, hold the photo upright until the glue hardens. You may use other glue types if you wish, but make sure they are not water or oil soluble and that the scene is completely dry before completing the globe.

The next step is creating your snow. While glitter adds a nice shimmering effect, it is usually too light to really fall to the bottom and just sort of floats around. To add weight to your snow and create that lovely drifting effect, you will need some clean, dry egg shell. The quickest way is to hard boil an egg and use its shell, but if you are like me and use cleaned egg shells in lots of projects, you may already have saved some. Place the egg shell between two wax paper sheets or inside a plastic bag. Gently crush the shells. You may use your hand or a roller or any type of weighty object. Don't get overzealous or you will end up with

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