How to make a Creepy Terrarium

My track record with plants is not all that great. I have had plants that lasted for years and then one month of me being distracted and boom they are beyond saving or dead. Well let me show you how to make a creepy terrarium that you will not have to worry about keeping alive. Now you can make this with live plants but I strongly suggest you use repurposed second hand plants for this project. The creepy factor is provided by some leftover spiders from Halloween but you can use whatever faux insects you want. I just happened to have spiders laying around.

Supplies:

Clear glass vase
Fake plants
Fake spider or other bug
Stones for the bottom
Dried Moss
Hot glue gun
Clear Decoupage glue (optional)

Prepare all of your ingredients: do a quick test fit of your plant and trim off any pieces that will not fit in your vase or add some leaves with hot glue if your plant is not lush enough.

Okay, on to building your terrarium. First things first, wash your stones and place them in the bottom of the vase as a base. I got this little bag of stones from the dollar store and they were not that good looking so I added a clear finish to them before putting them in my vase. Let the stones dry and put enough stones in so you can see the layer from the outside of the vase. How many stones depends on the size of your vase – use your best judgement.

Next comes moss. Add enough moss to over the stones. Pat it down so that it is in thin-ish layer.

For this terrarium I wanted to have the spider posed on the plant. Once I used the hot glue I liked how the strings of glue resembled spider webs so I left them. I love it but that is just me. You do what you think is best. 🙂

Finally “plant” your stem in the moss and rocks. If your plant does not want to stand up on its own clear out a little space in the stones and hot glue it in. Then replace the stones.

I think everyone should have on of these in their house. It gives me a bit of that “Addams Family” vibe.

Here is the second terrarium I did. Since it is a bit larger I had to create a base for my little fake flower. I hot glued a little wooden disk to the bottom of my flower to give it something to attach to.

Then I hot glued the stem to the bottom of the base. I did do a test fit with the stones and the spider so that my stem was long enough and the confirm were I wanted the placement of the stem.

Once your stem is glued down follow the steps above by adding your stones around the stem.

Top off the stones with your moss and pat it down a bit.

Add a fake spider and garnish with some fake flowers. Oh yeah, you can leave out the spider if you want but why?

I know I say this at the end of almost every blog post but would these make a great gift?

Want to make something with real plants? Try this vintage container garden.