Terrarium Pendants on the Cheap!

Terrariums are all the rage right now and projects for them are popping up all over the internet. I have been intrigued. Some time ago I saw a necklace with a terrarium pendant from Anthropologie. I knew I had to have one. Then, I saw the price. Seriously, $128 for a little glass vial filled with rocks and moss? So. Not. Happening.

So, when I was strolling through my local Hobby Lobby this week, I spied the cutest little corked glass vials for $5.99. Instantly I knew that THOSE would be my terrarium necklaces, but on the cheap. So, I used my 40% off coupon and snatched them up for $3.60 plus tax. What a steal, right?

The rest of the materials I needed I was able to wrangle up without spending any more money on the project. That’s right. No. More. Money. Talk about total happiness!

So – the how to below is totally minor. It’s the collecting of materials that is the big deal in my opinion, so let’s cover that first.

You’re going to need:

Corked Glass Vials – You can get them at Hobby Lobby for $3.60 plus tax. Link here.

Screw Eyes – I pulled a couple out of my picture hanging kit in the garage. There were tons in there that I had never used and they are the perfect size! If you don’t have any, I spied some cheapie kits at Wal-Mart for $0.99 you could use and have stuff left to hang pictures should the need ever arise.

Natural Business to Put Inside – This was the fun part. Go outside and collect. I took some little craft storage containers and a spoon to the river in a Wal-Mart bag. (classy, I know) I walked around filled my little tubs with itty bitty rocks and twigs, some sand, some dirt. I collected a variety of dried up things like bark from a dead tree and these dry spiky things left behind on a dead plant. I wasn’t sure what all would fit inside the bottles, but I took a little bit of anything and everything that struck my fancy. If you want to have a technically accurate terrarium, you could use moss because it will continue to live inside of vial. Look on the north sides of buildings and trees to locate moss.

Tack on some glue, q-tips and a glue gun and you are set my friend.

STEP 1: Take the cork out of the vial that you want to use and set the bottle somewhere you won’t accidentally break it. Turn your screw eye into the very center of the cork. Take the screw eye back out, squirt in a little daub of hot glue and turn that sucker back in there.

STEP 2: This step is optional. I am a klutz. I dare say I will go down in history as one of the clumsiest/most accident prone people in history. I figure that one of two things are going to happen to me.

Option 1 – I’ll forget I’m wearing the necklace and bend over constantly tossing the stuff inside around. While it will settle back, will some sand stick to the sides and cloud the view? Since this is my first attempt, I’m not sure and it might not be a biggie, but I don’t want to chance it.

Option 2 – I’ll break the glass vial and I’ll wind up getting sand all over the place. It will be at a time like while I’m removing my camera battery or somewhere similar I don’t want sand in and I’ll be up a creek!

So, if you ARE NOT like me and you’re going to skip this step, move on to step three now… If you’re still here, check it: Take a q-tip and get very small amount of glue on it. Push it inside of the bottle and swab the glue around where you want it to appear that there is sand. Use a clean q-tip to clean up the line inside or get any stray glue off of the rim of the bottle. Let dry a bit before moving on to the next step.

STEP 3: Now it’s time to start filling your bottle in earnest. I went sand, then rocks, then teensy white flowers I got off of a big ol’ weed. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, after all. Since the cork isn’t permantly affixed, when these flowers wilt, I’ll change them out with fresh new ones.

STEP 4: Put a cork in it! :) Take a chain of the length you are happiest with from one of your existing necklacces and borrow it. Run it through  your screw eye and you are done! When you’re not wearing your pendant, you can store it in your jewelry box and put the chain back where it belongs.

So there you have it. If you buy the vials at HL (3.60), glue (.99), cotton swabs (.99) and a picture hanging kit (.99) – you’re looking at $6.57 total plus tax. If you make all ten – you’ve gotten yourself a steal! Each pendant cost you less than 70 cents EACH. Don’t you feel like a frugal little money saving rock star?

Hope your Thursday is ab fab!