Snow globes seem to be a hot holiday trend this year. I have been making lots of dry snow globes to decorate my home for the holidays. It occurred to me that I could create dry snow globe using our clear tin pails and by inserting a gift card sandwiched between two gift tags, the snow globe pails becomes unique gift packaging!! After the
gift card is removed the container becomes a decoration that can be displayed every year.
Here's what I did:
I used our 3"x5" clear pail tin containers and small white bottle brush trees but you could also use green bottle brush trees.
Note: As of this morning, we still have a few of the white bottle brush trees at our Toronto store in the Creative Studio but they are almost sold out.
My tree was a little to big for the tin container so I took the base of the tree off and used wire cutters to remove some of the bristles on the bottom of the tree. You will also have to cut the wire stem before you put the tree base back on. I glued the tree to the base using E-6000 glue.
I wanted my trees to have a vintage feeling so I added sliver glitter using gel medium. We sell Wendy Addison's German Silver Pure Glass Glitter in the Toronto Store. You only have to add a little gel medium to the tips of the trees. Work quickly once you have added the gel medium and sprinkle the glass glitter all over.
Tip: I put my glitter into salt shakers because it gives me better control of the glitter. I also sprinkle the glitter over a container to keep the mess to a minimum and so that I can put the excess glitter back into the salt shaker.
I used our #5 kraft tags and cut them to size so they fit inside the tin container. You'll need two tags if you want to hide the gift card - one for the front and one for the back. I used stamps and distress ink (all available in the Toronto store) to decorate and age the tags.
Then I used two sided tape to attach the gift card to the back of one of the tags. More two sided tape was used at the top of one tags to join the two tags. Then a ribbon was tie to the top of the tag so that it would be easy to pull the tags/gift card out of the container.
Once the gift tags is complete and the glittered tree is dry you can position them both inside of the tin container. The tree will have to be off centred to make room for the tag. Use E-6000 glue to keep the tree in place on the bottom of the container. Once the glue is dry you are ready to add the snow glitter. You only need the white snow glitter to cover the bottom of the container and part of the base of the tree. Now, place the tag/gift card back into the container behind the tree.
I decorated the lid of the container using kraft paper, stamps and distress ink ... similar to what I did on the tags inside the container. You could cut wrapping paper or scrapbooking paper for a different look. I embellished the handle of the pail on one side with assorted ribbons as you can see above. The washer on the twine is what you use to open the top of the container ... make sure that the twine is long enough that the washer can be used. I added a photo gift tag to my container .. you could also use one of my free gift tag downloads from this post.
Here's another one of my snowglobe gift card holders ... this one has a snowflake ornament mixed in with the ribbons. I also added a vintage paper detail inside the container ... it is the definition of "snow" from an old dictionary.
Tip: If you are not going to be present when the gift is being opened, you may want to write on the back of the gift tag explaining that they are to open the container and take out the tag to find a surprise.
These are so easy to make and I guarantee whoever receives one of these will think they are very special to you.
If you are interested in learning more about making dry snow globes for Christmas decorating, you can visit my personal blog here for another snow globe project.
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