Shrinky-Dink Snow Globes

This is one of the crafts we did in my class for 4-year-olds at Vacation Bible School this summer.  We used Shrinky-Dinks and baby food jars (stage 2) to make snow globes.  First I drew apples on 4 x 6 in. pieces of Shrinky-Dink plastic, leaving space at the bottom of the apple for the stand (the theme was Big Apple Adventure, so a "souvenir" snow globe seemed like a cute craft).  Then I let the kids color them.  It was easy to tell which side they should color because the words were backwards!  You have to color on the opposite side you drew the picture on, or the outlines will smear.  The kids had to wear smocks because the instructions said to use PERMANENT marker.  Plus since it's in water, a washable marker would just wash right off!  We used Sharpies, and you can see that they still bled some.  The water is pink.  After coloring, I trimmed the corners off the rectangles to make them easier to fit into the jars.  Then I baked them according to manufacturer's directions and, while they were still warm, bent the bottoms of the apples into a 90º angle (like an L) to make a base.  Then we let the kids put glitter in the jars.  I used super-heavy-duty glue (a waterproof one made for metal, plastic, and glass) to attach the base of the apple to the inside of the lid of the baby food jar.  After the glue had dried.  We filled the jars with water, up to the threads, then used the same glue to go around the rim of the the jar, and inside the lid where the rim would connect.  Then we screwed the lids on and waited for the glue to dry. Some of the glitter floats and some sinks, but all of it swirls around when you turn the snow globe.  The one pictured here was made at the beginning of June, a little more than two months ago, and has not leaked.