Miniature Terrarium Tutorial

 Hello my mini friends!  Today I made a tiny terrarium that I thought I would share with you all.  The dome is from a cosmetic under eye cover up by Maybelline, the base is a gold button from my stash, and the star player "mushroom" is a tack that I picked up with my shoe while watering plants on my porch.  No idea where the tack came from, but I'm glad I had shoes on!  

Here are some shots along the way.  

I thought this lid was perfect for the cloche'.  Although it was a struggle to wait until the concealer was gone to use it.

For the inside, I used a sliver of floral foam and just pressed the lid down onto it.  I used a toothpick to gently pry the foam from the lid.

Next, I used my trusty wood glue and glued the foam to the button.

To the foam I glued pieces of craft moss and gave it a little hair cut to the right height.

I also added pieces of dried rose petals and some curly vines I found in the woods last spring.

I went through my scrap jewelry pieces and glued one on top along with a tiny pearl to give it a fancy look. 

I apparently did not take any pictures of me painting the tack.  I used a buttermilk color for the stem and light blue for the top.  I also gave it some glittery spots.  I always love to add magic.

I love making these tiny treasures.  

Thanks for always being here for me to share it with you!

XOXO ~Laurie

Indoor Garden Terrariums

When I told people what I made for my sisters and mom for Christmas, most of them said "wow, those are from the seventies!"  But really terrariums have made a humongo come back.  I love the idea of a self sufficient world under glass.  Once the plants are established you don't even have to water them much at all.  Maybe every few weeks and not much then.  They don't need outside oxygen and don't need a terrific amount of sun light.  It's the perfect little world.

I bought my glass containers at Wal-Mart because they were the cheapest and believe me when I say I shopped around looking for low priced ones because I was making four.  One for me and three for them.  They were in the kitchen department and ran seven and nine dollars. 

The plants I bought at Lowe's.  The moss I dug up from around Shaun's shop in the gravel.  I used a layer of gravel from the driveway on the bottom, activated charcoal, potting soil and then plants.  I stuck pretty rocks that I have found and placed them in there for character.  They all seem to be doing very well.

I will tell you that I got my courage from Martha Stewart and her very instructional videos.  Once you find one and watch it, it will bring up more and more.  I bet I watched ten of them and I was ready to roll. 

 

 

 

The charcoal can be messy!  But it keeps the stink out.

The big one was for me :) It's is 2 gallon and the others are 1 gallon.

One bought plant can be seperated into several.

 

Give it a pretty good spray down so the plants will settle in.  But not so much water on the plants themselves as trying to get it to the soil and moss.

 

 

I will say the the ferns haven't done very well, the ones that I bought.  A different kind may respond better.  And you do have to trim the plants down some so they aren't too tall.  And also they aren't supposed to touch the glass. 

 

If the inside of the jar has moisture building up it is either in a spot that's too sunny and it definately doesn't need water.  You can tilt the lid a touch and let it get a small amount of air to absorb the extra moisture. 

 

The moss that I got from the driveway has done well and little plants have popped up out of it. 

 

It really didn't take long at all once I had on the ingredients and I love the results!