If you love Christmas and crafting, there is no doubt that you have seen tutorials for faux snow globes all over the blog world. Whether they are in a mason jar, a cake plate, or a terrarium, tutorials for faux snow globes are everywhere. Now don’t get me wrong, I love these faux snow globes and even have 3 or 4 that I have crafted myself over the years. This year however, I wanted to try something different, so I decided to add a personalized touch to my DIY snow globe and it turned out oh so cute!

• Ink Jet Shrink Plastic
• Clear Globe
• 4″ Wood Rounds
• Bottle Brush Trees
• Kosher salt or epsom salts 
• Krazy glue and hot glue
• an ink jet printer
• glitter, spray paint, and acrylic paint (optional)
  

Once my trees were ready, it was time to prep the picture of my family to go into the globe. For this you will need a digital family photo that you will then print out on the inkjet shrink plastic. Be sure to change the opacity (transparency) of the picture to 70% because the colors will intensify when it shrinks. I printed out my family image at 6″ by 8″ so that when it shrunk it would be the perfect size.

In the photos above you can see the difference in the saturation and size of the photo before and after shrinking. Now that all your items are prepped it is time to paint and assemble your snow globe.

Begin by painting your raw wood round (this step is optional). Once the paint is dry, use the super glue to glue on the bottle brush trees to the wood base. I tried to also glue the shrinky dink photo to the wood base but it would not hold, so I ended up using hot glue to attach it.

Fun side note: While attempting to super glue the shrinky dink to the base, I actually ended up gluing it to my finger! I didn’t have any acetone in the house to remove it and it was time to go pick my daughter up from school (we have to actually get out of the car, no circle drive pick up for Kinder). So I had to go get her while having a 3″ family photo stuck to my finger. Fun times! So please be careful when working with the super glue. Ha!

Once everything is attached, sprinkle a 1/2″ layer of salt into the glass bowl, line the rim of the bowl with the super glue and flip your wood base over, line up on the bowl and press for 30 seconds to adhere. Then just flip the globe over and let the salt “snow” settle to the bottom.

And there you have it! Your very own personalized family portrait snow globe!

Pardon the distorted photos. Because of the round nature of the glass the photos of the interior tend to get distorted, but it is really clear and easy to see all the little details in person.

Now don’t you want to go out and make these for everyone you know? I know I sure do!