How not to make a snow globe

[Update: I got it all worked out in time for the party (yay!) -- you can read up on what works here.]

I am so glad I decided to do a trial run before the birthday party. Last night I made my first snow globe and it looked really good (if I do say so myself), if a bit lop-sided. This morning my sea horse has come unglued and is floating in it's oily home...

To avoid disappointment do not repeat all of these steps.

First the shopping spree:

• I bought spice jars. They were pretty, cheap (99 cents!), and just the right size
• I got a ton of plastic party favors that would work well standing up in a snow globe (sea horses, fish, frogs, soldiers, dinosaurs...
• Glitter. and confetti. Lots of it.
• Baby oil

Assembling the snow globe:

1. Clean the jar thoroughly. This is what all the websites I found said to do so I did it.
2. Hot glue glass rocks to the lid leaving enough room around the edges so that I could screw the top to the jar again. I used the rocks to raise my horse a bit so that he wouldn't be obscured by the rim of the lid.
   Whoops: I left the little disc of cardboard in the bottle cap and my rocks came unglued from it leaving me with a floaty horse on a pile of rocks.
3. Hot glue my sea horse.
4. Spoon in the glitter (why glitter makes me so happy, I'm really not sure, but it is marvelous stuff).
   Whoops: I didn't use enough glitter. I didn't want to have a bottle full of glitter to obscure my sea horse and ended up not having enough for a good effect.
5. Over at the sink I poured the baby oil into my jar, testing from time to time to make sure that it wouldn't spill over when I put on the lid. I managed to do this without too much mess. I used baby oil because my local pharmacy claims not to sell glycerine anymore (?!?!!).
   Whoops: The glitter falls too quickly for my liking in the oil. I also needed just a little more liquid to avoid a big air bubble.
6. Now the tricky part. I squeezed out a ribbon of hot glue along the threads of the jar lid to keep it in place once closed.
   Whoops: I think the oil kept the glue from adhering properly.

So. Today I'm sending Tomas out to hunt down glycerin (he has the car). An extensive session with Google leads me to understand that I'll only need to add a drop of the stuff to water so that my glitter floats properly.

Wish me luck!