Saturday, December 26, 2009

Christmas Project - Terrariums

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas.  And now that Christmas is over, I can post some of my Christmas present projects.  :) Although I have no idea who reads this blog, I wanted to be sure I didn't give any presents away.  It's a good thing I waited, as I just found out yesterday that my sister in law does! (Hi Rachel!) :)

Please forgive the terrible layout of this post.  Something is messed up and if I knew more about html I could fix it.  But alas, I don't and I have to run!

This year one of my biggest projects was to create terrariums for some of my friends and family members.  I have done a lot of painting, printmaking and other fine art projects in the past and decided to go for something a little different this year.  They were a bit of a challenge, but in the end I really like how they came out.  Now hopefully they'll live for a while!

Although it took me quite a while to find the right materials, in general, terrariums are not hard to make.  Here are some simple directions.

1. Find a good sized jar at a craft store or a second hand shop.  Apothecary jars work well, if you can find them for a reasonable price. 
2. First, I put some river stones on the bottom of my jar for drainage purposes.  
3. Next, put a layer of activated charcoal (get this at a pet store)
4. Put at least 2 inches of potting soil for the next layer.
5. Next, find some small plants (I sent away for some small plants specifically for terrariums) and decide where to place them.  Make sure they have ample room.  You can also use moss to cover the bare spots (we found some on our neighbors shed...it was pretty funny watching Brian "harvest" the moss over our fence, trying not to be spotted by anyone!)
6. After you have planted your terrarium plants, lightly water.  
7. You could be done at this point but I also decided to put some stones around the terrarium for decoration, as well as some birds that I made out of sculpey and wire and some tiny nests I found at the craft store. 
8. Water lightly every month or so (or whenever it looks like it's getting dry).
9. Enjoy it!

It was very fun getting 25 mini plants in the mail one day.  Brian was almost giggling with delight as he unpacked each little package.  He wants to just order these little guys every once in while, just for fun. :)

Lovely jars and plants all ready to be assembled.


Tiny plants inside the terrarium..


I love how this jar shows off the wonderful terrarium layers!

 Now it's your turn... for those of you ladies with kids, wouldn't this be a fun activity during these long winter months?

1 comment:

  1. this is such a great gift idea! I was lucky to find a big lidded jar at a tag sale this spring~ where did you get your plants?

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