Bat globe!

I'd like to collect snow globes. There is just something magical in little scenes trapped beneath water with swirling "snow" that I love. The only reason I don't have some massive collection is because 1. I hate clutter, and 2. I hate dusting.  There is a 3rd. reason, but I don't want to offend anyone by mentioning being an old lady with an insane number of snow globes and a story to go with each one. Since I can only think of one other globe I have I figured it was safe to make one and bring my collection number up to two. My other store bought globe is also a Halloween themed globe, so I only have to dust it a few times while it sits out for the season.

This time of year the craft stores are filled with Halloween and Christmas items. It becomes Hallomas in these stores. This is a good thing in this case because one of the items I made this project with is a Christmas craft item. The globe itself.

I bought this at Michaels. It's pretty basic and made of plastic. There are places online you can find empty globes that come in different sizes and are made of glass. One day I plan on making a bigger, better globe and may buy one of those, but for now this is fine. You can also use clean baby food jars, canning jars, ect. These come with instructions inside on how to make your own globe, but I didn't really follow them. I probably should have, but I just tossed the instructions to the side and read them after I finished. Yeah, smart. 

Since a globe with just swirling "snow" would not be that interesting to look at you need to buy something that is interesting to look at. The Halloween village items are perfect for this. Keep in mind you don't have a ton of room, so make sure what you pick is going to fit inside. I chose this gravestone with ghost. 

Ahhh... tomb sweet tomb. 

You will also need the following.

• Waterproof glue (I used LIQUID FUSION!, say it in your head with a booming voice. Sounds cool, right?)
• Glitter for the "snow" or confetti
• Glycerine

I decided I wanted a spooky tree behind my ghosty but all the trees in the village items were too large, so I had to improvise. I bought this out of the floral section and just cut some of the top pieces off to a good length. 

I took these pieces and using my waterproof glue glued my ghost and tree pieces to the base of the globe. I used quite a bit of glue on the tree pieces to make sure they stayed where they should. 

If you are impatient like me, you should at least let this dry over night. 24 hours would be best though. This is how it will look in the globe. 

Make sure that it will fit into your globe before doing anything else. I did have to trim my tree tops a bit more. 

For the "snow" I decided to use black glitter and some bat confetti. I found this multi colored bat confetti in Hobby Lobby for .99 cents. Silver, black and purple bats. 

Pour a little bit of glitter and confetti or whatever you want to float around in your globe. If you are using glitter make sure it's a bit larger pieces and not the ultra fine stuff or it's just going to float on top of your water. 

Now fill with distilled water and 1/2 tsp. of glycerin. I really don't know what the glycerin is for but I've read a few places that say you need it. I've also read some people use baby oil, but I'm not sure about that. Glycerin can be found in craft stores in the soap making supplies. Do not over fill your globe with water. Remember when you put the bottom on it's going to raise the water level. Make sure you are over the sink when putting it together or at least have a towel handy. ( Go ahead, ask me how I know.. wait, don't ask.) You can add or subtract water while putting the base on. 

Lastly I took some Halloween themed ribbon and glued it around the base to hide the plastic screw on bottom. If you wanted a more substantial base or something fancier you could put this on top of a pillar candle holder. 

Pirates too! 

It's really impossible to take a picture of the glitter and bats swirling around in my underwater grave. At least, it is with the camera I was using. I wasn't going to get all technical and drag out the Nikon and try to snap the fastest possible pic. Mainly because I still haven't learned how to set the Nikon to do fancy things like that. So I used my little point and "hopetoGodyougotadecentpic" camera. I still probably took about 50 pictures and never did get the bats floating around, although I assure you they do. 

You can barely see one stupid bat on the bottom... *sigh*

Anyway, that's my Halloween bat globe, or lack of bats globe. (I swear, every time I typed GLOBE in this post I accidentally typed GLOVE. So if you see the word GLOVE, it's suppose to be GLOBE! It's not a snow glove or bat glove.. )