This year I’m taking part in the Goodreads 2023 Reading Challenge. I set my target to read 35 books this year. I don’t read so much with my children anymore, and I’m also working full-time, which doesn’t leave me as much time to read as I would like.

So 35 books felt realistic – there’s nothing worse than setting yourself a target that you won’t reach.

I like using Goodreads to record the books I read, but I wanted to make some kind of visual representation too. I decided to combine a mini version of the books I’ve read with a snow globe, to make a mini book snow globe.

To make your own mini book snow globe you will need:

Foam board

Glue

Scissors or scalpel

Plastic fillable snow globe

I bought my supplies from Hobbycraft but any fillable snow globe will do. I like these ones as they are plastic, very handy when you have children around. We’ve previous used them to make a really fun Playmobil family snow globe.

How to make a mini book snow globe

First you will need to make mini versions of the books you have read. To do this I found images of the front covers or used my own photos and imported them into a Word document. Then I was able to re-size them, so each cover measured 2.5 cm in height. I waited until I had a few images to print, then printed them on standard printer paper.

I trimmed around a block of books and stuck the row of books to the foam board.

I then cut round each book using a metal ruler and a scalpel to make my mini books.

To ensure there were no cheeky white bits I decided to cover the back of each mini book too. I printed out a second sheet of covers, cut them out and attached a second cover on the back. The mini books are super cute!

The last thing to do was to put the mini books into the fillable snow globe. I placed the mini books inside the snow globe, pushed in the base bung and twisted the lid tight.

I keep my mini book snow globe on my desk and I love to watch it fill as I finish a book. I’ll still be adding my books to Goodreads but this makes a great visual reminder too.