How to make an easy indoor fairy garden terrarium * Moms and Crafters

Cooler weather doesn’t mean you can’t have green in your home! This easy, low-maintenance, hard-to-kill craft brings a touch of whimsy and refreshing scent. An indoor fairy garden terrarium is an unconventional, but beautiful thing to add to your autumn home decor.

People tend to associate greenery with Spring and warm weather. Not me. Greenery in warm weather is kind of “obvious” and unoriginal. I like to bring a little bit of irony into my life. So, I celebrated Autumn by bringing a little bit of green into my home!

This fairy garden is so low maintenance – you literally just need to spray it with water once a week to keep it alive. I’m a celebrated and talented plant-killer and this one has survived my home so far. I decided to keep it plain and simple, without elaborate details – but with just the right amount of fairy in it.

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I decided to keep it fresh and white (think winter white) to keep with the whimsy, without overwhelming. The result: lush green, broken up by a shiny white pebble path, leading to a gleaming white stone gate, which leads to the mysterious and fantastical fairy garden. I adore how it came out.

I based this craft on a Doodle Crate that I got. For those of you who don’t know Doodle Crate is the AWESOME teen-adult version of Kiwi Crate – a craft project subscription service. While you can get individual boxes too, they don’t seem to have this one in stock, so I listed the supplies below. They provided for a very basic terrarium, but I decided to turn it into a fairy garden. The technique and science I learned from the kit, and the whimsy is all mine (Just to give credit where credit is due.)

Anyway, on to the craft. I didn’t have the easiest time finding all the supplies for you, but I did my best hunting them down. Use things you have around the house too, and add your own creative touch, as I did with the original Doodle Crate. That’s what makes a craft awesome…

What you need to make an indoor fairy garden terrarium:

Air plants
Shiny white stones
Something to put it in (similar to this clear acrylic container)
Rocks and stones, and pebbles for drainage
Air dry clay
Reindeer moss
Soil pellet
Plastic knife and toothpick for shaping clay

How to make an easy indoor fairy garden terrarium:

Spread out an even layer of pebbles in your container

2. Break up your soil pellet by adding drops of water at a time and spreading it out. Note: if you have potting soil handy, you can use that too. I recommended pellets only because they come in much smaller packages.

3. Spread out some moss on half of the container. This is my favorite part because that moss smells like HEAVEN.

4. Spread moss along the sides of the other half, leaving the center soil exposed. I made this slightly thinner than the other layer.

5. Create a path using shiny white pebbles in the exposed mud area.

6. Create a gate using the white clay. Create an arch using a clay rope. Use a knife to cut to shape the two sides of the gate. Make sure to measure it to the width of your container. Use a toothpick to carve stones and give it texture. I apologize, the texture did not seem to come out clear in any of the pictures.

7. Place the gate in the center – between the fence/split moss and the complete bed of moss.

8. Add a little non-plant landscaping. I put in two rocks, and a butterfly and mushroom made of clay. The mushroom got a little lost in the final project (see the back right corner of the terrarium) but the butterfly sits real pretty on that rock.

9. Add air plants as you wish!

After I was finished, I tweaked it a bit, and added some more white pebbles to the back. I love how they give it a fresh look, and make it more like what I imagine fairyland to be like.