Dollar Tree Snow Globes and Ornaments

 

I feel like I lost a month because I lost a month being able to be in my craft room because of my knee injury. So, it was great to spend some time in my craft room this weekend getting out my Christmas stash and having a chance to play. 

Over the Summer, I found these Disney, Pixar, and Sesame Street figurines at Dollar Tree. I knew from years past they made snow globe ornaments and was stalking them waiting for them to re-appear. 

Years ago, my Mom had given us a wonderful set of Disney ornaments. My main tree is more formal. Call it my Martha Stewart personality disorder. Even as a child, I had thoughts of the kind of tree I wanted when I had my own but when our son was born, I also wanted him to have a very kid-friendly tree. 

Mr. Chocolate and Son were in charge of this tree while I tended to my other three "frou-frou" trees with one stipulation: "Hands off our tree fancy pants". But kids grow up and he's lived on his own for a while and it's a conundrum. He doesn't put up a tree because of his dog who's a bundle of energy and while he was in grad school, his schedule allowed him to come home and trim the tree with Dad. For the last couple of years though, reality has set in and he won't always be able to do that. I FINALLY convinced them that I could honor the tradition of the tree but "spruce" (pun intended) it up a bit. I bought new lights and made a few ornaments to honor our continued love of Disney, Pixar, and Muppets. 

Supplies:

• Mini Character Figurines
• Snow Globe Ornaments
• Hot Glue and Glue Gun
• Epsom Salt
• Coordinating Glitter,Sequins, Ribbon,Pipe Cleaners

These are super easy and fun to make.

Some of the figures sit on a base like Jack Jack here. Learn as you go. While it fit within the circumference of the lid (bottom) I realized after I glued it in that the lid didn't quite screw on correctly so I had to glue it in. The process for all of these is the same.

Make sure your figure will fit through the opening and the lid will close. Glue the figure either directly to the lid or as I'll show, to something to elevate it a little. Then, use a length of pipecleaner and hot glue around the top of the ornament. This will create a seal because otherwise the filler may spill out. What goes inside is up to your imagination!

I used epsom salt and various sequins along with other small things like pom poms as my filler. Once you've "sealed" the top of your ornament, load it up with your filler then screw on your lid with the figurine attached and you can be done now, or do as I did and wrap the base with coordinating ribbon,

Your only limit is your imagination. The hardest part is if you are looking for a specific character. No guarantees that every store has what you want but then you just go from store to store, right? 

Jack Jack is Mr. Chocolate's favorite character so I was ecstatic to find him. I'm still looking for Edna Mode! 

I mentioned above that some of the figures don't come with a base like Jack Jack did. These, I was able to elevate a little higher using some wood blocks (Dollar Tree) from my stash. I glued the block to the lid, then the figure to the block. Since these ornaments are tall, there's room.

I did this with Oscar and then followed the same steps using coordinating colors. 

But wait...there's more! Some of the figures are just too big for the ornament opening. Solution? The Snow Globes that they also sell at Dollar Tree!

Sully's arms were too wide for the ornament so I made him into a snow globe! Same overall process...fill with coordinating sequins and/or glitter and epsom salt and wrap with ribbon.

I threw some sparkly pom poms in here along with some sequin snowflakes.

I'm really happy with how easy and fun these were!

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754th Inspire Me Tuesday

Creatively Crafty Linky Party #225

Winter Wonderland Repurposed Storage Jar

We visited our favorite little antique town this weekend and while there, I picked up a clear glass storage jar. Maybe it was seeing all of the vintage Christmas displays in the stores but I immediately had an idea mind for my jar which also provided another chance for me to bleach  more bottlebrush trees. You can check out this post for more on the trees.

For this project you will need:

• Large glass storage jar with removable lid
• Bleached bottlebrush tree
• Epsom Salt
• Jingle Bells (large and small)
• Snowflake pick
• Wood Word or letters

After cleaning up your jar, glue the bleached tree to the bottom.

I put a big glob of hot glue on the bottom of the tree since I wanted it to stand firmly in the jar. Once the tree’s glued in, pour in some of the epsom salt and then drop in a few of the jingle bells, add more salt. When satisfied with the depth, place the snowflake pick and phrase inside the jar. I sprinkled some iridescent glitter on top.

Cover the rim of the jar with a coordinating washi tape, twine, and ribbon, and then tie a few jingle bells to the ends.

It’s sitting on my Winter Wonderland vintage mantle with my other bleached trees.

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Please Don't Taste The Vanilla Bean Bath Salts

Since I became rather addicted to Epsom Salts this holiday season, I thought I should at least do one thing with them for which they are actually intended. Making homemade bath salts isn’t a new idea but here’s my take on it.

Vanilla Bean Bath Salt

I followed basic guidelines I found online. 3 parts Epsom Salt to 1 part Baking Soda ( I found a big box of baking soda at Target with the cleaning supplies). Then I kinda improvised!

I figured if you can infuse sugars with vanilla beans, why couldn’t you infuse bath salts? So I did.

I mixed my ingredients together, sliced open a vanilla bean, plopped it in there and mixed some more. Then I added just a few drops of vanilla extract for good measure.

Fished out my vanilla beans and dropped them in the bottom of the glass jar I bought for my bath salts. I got the jar at Cost Plus where I also got my “scoops”. More on that later.

Poured in my salts and done. Well with that part. I wanted to pretty up my jar and since it was going in a bathroom, went with vinyl instead of paper to embellish the jar. Cut some shapes from the Damask Décor Cricut cart on my Expression in brown and gold vinyl.

Tied some twine and ribbon yarn around the neck and added a little of this star garland I had in my stash

One of those things you pick up because it’s pretty and don’t know when you’ll use it?

Finished the top off with a gold vinyl cutout and a vintage button. Now for the scoop on the scoop. I was looking for individual spice or coffee scoops (you know how you get an idea in your head about what you want and how dare the store not have it?) and was about to give up and buy a pack of different sizes which I didn’t really want and then found that Cost Plus has a whole section devoted to tasting sized stuff! YAY! Spoons and Forks and Spreaders Oh My. I found these little square tasting spoons that I’m going to use as scoops!

See? I still managed to find a way to use something for other than its intended purpose!

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Epsom Salt and Glitter Crushed Peppermint Ornament

I love all the things you can do with clear ornaments but my favorite ones are the flat ones. I’m sure there’s a name for them but they’re the round ones that look like you took a ball an flattened it.

I needed something I could make multiples of without breaking the bank so thank you Michaels for having these 50% off. Picked up a few packs of these (4 for $2.50) along with some of these glittered snowflake ornaments  by Darice ( $1.99 for a package of 12).

Glued a snowflake on one side and cut out white vinyl snowflakes using my Cricut Expression (Damask Décor cart) and stuck one on the other side.

Got out some tinsel glitter and Epsom salt, and spooned a little Epsom salt, silver, and red glitter into my ornament. Finished with a bow from red with silver polka dot ribbon.

I think it looks like crushed peppermint.

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