show toppers wonderment jar

It's a snow day here so Alfredo and I decided to do a little crafting. Well, mostly I crafted and Alfredo staged an epic dinosaur battle all around me. I made this adorable snow jar using a regular jar and Cosmo Cricket's super Show Toppers jar lid and mini mobile. Let me show you how I did it.

First, I used Claudine Hellmuth's paper doll set to make a fun version of our little family. It was super easy to do it in photoshop but if you don't have mad photoshop skills, you could just make the paper dolls the old-fashioned cut and paste way and then scan them in. Then, make them into Shinky Dinks by printing them onto Shrinky Dink Ink Jet plastic sheets! Shrinky Dinks will shrink to about 1/3 of the original print out size. One great thing about making Shrinky Dink paper dolls is that it's easier to cut out a paper doll that's 6" tall compared to one that's 2" tall.

To prepare the file, lighten the colors quite a bit. As the image shrinks, it becomes darker. If you skip this step, your Shrinky Dinks will be too dark.

There's nothing so fun as making Shrinky Dinks! It was most fun to make them using a toaster oven so Alfredo could easily watch them shrink. They roll and fold onto themselves as they shrink, doing somersaults. You really must make little Shrinky Dinks of yourself!

To make the snowy mound that we're standing on, I used a styrofoam ball, cut in half using a serrated kitchen knife.

I covered the styrofoam surface with a generous, gooey coat of Alene's Tacky Glue...

And then dumped clear glitter on top.

I inserted two toothpicks (trimmed to about 2")  to the snow mound so that I'd have something to attach my little people to. And I left this to dry a bit.

Meanwhile, I used the mini mobile from Cosmo Cricket to make a sweet little chandelier. I used some crinkly wire but you can use any kind of thin wire you have on hand.

I began by twisting the end of the wire to one of the hooks. I cut a length about 18" long and began threading little beads on. 

I used the tiny beads from this assortment, adding them randomly.

When I had enough beaded to make a little swag, I wrapped the wire around the next hook and continued around the entire mobile. 

Then I added another layer, with less beads, above those swags. 

I glued a large silver bead over each of the hooks to help keep the wires on...and I added some dangly bits attached in the center, like the heart bead. These dangling wires ended up being a bit too long so I wound them around a round toothpick to make them like springs, which made them shorter.

To assemble the jar, I glued the snowy mound into the bottom of the jar. I added extra glitter, which settled nicely all along the bottom of the snowy mound. Then I attached the chandelier to the hook inside the show stopper lid and screwed the lid onto the jar.

 

Can you even stand how adorable this is?  You have got to make a little version of your family for your own little snow jar! 

Claudine's Paper Doll Sets (I bought the family version)

Shrinky Dink Plastic for Ink Jet

Cosmo Cricket Show Toppers 

(Or here)

Cosmo Cricket Mini Mobile

 

Enjoy! And hey! Show me what you make!