Featured On: Make And Takes! Children’s Terrarium Tutorial

I am so excited today I an hardly stand it: today I am a guest poster for Make and Takes Summer Camp series! I have been avidly reading and voraciously bookmarking Make and Takes for over a year, so imagine my excitement when I found out I could create a children’s terrarium tutorial as a guest poster.

Check out the post here.

I have loved this blog even before I had Isobel. Though a large part of the site is geared for or with children, you don’t have to be a parent to find inspiration and wonderful ideas there. Craft ideas, inspiration, and food–I’ve pinned the hell out of that website on Pinterest and saved hundreds of bookmarks and now I hope someone will take inspiration from my post.

Head on over to read my Children’s Terrarium Tutorial. And give me a high-five while you’re at it.

Follow Friday – Terrarium Giveaway

In honor of yesterday’s Vintage Terrarium Book Giveaway post, today’s Follow Friday theme is terrariums. There’s still plenty of time to enter to win a vintage copy of a how-to terrarium book, and it’s open world-wide, not just to residents of the US.

Isobel and I officially finished this round of swimming lessons this week, and I’m a bit relieved. It was a Mommy & Me class and I swear I came home more exhausted than she did every day! She got a report card and a popsicle for completing the course and we are officially cleared to move into the Preschool Class next year.

What is Follow Friday? It’s a Twitter meme that I have taken a couple steps further.  Learn more about it in my FAQ. See my nomination for a Shorty Award for Follow Friday here. You can read more Follow Friday goodness here.

rolldiggity “If you’ve got it, flaunt it” was the inspiration behind my “RABIES!” t-shirt.

markleggett All of the people who bravely fought for their right to party many years ago now enjoy going to bed on a Saturday night before 9pm.

ApocalypseHow My smartphone is one restaurant-finding app away from being Gollum’s “precious.”

Toaster_Pastry Surprisingly the sun rose another day, my life remains fulfilled as I have never watched the ESPYs.

simontarr I’m never buying another gift again. All gifts will be scored from the claw machine. Merry Christmas.

MeganBoley Long day, long day, what do you see? I see zombie looking at me.

TheSuniverse Google+ confuses me. I’m just making one giant circle of friends. So suck on that.

MattGourley There isn’t an afternoon nap alive that I can’t wake up melancholy from!

wawoodworth Great, now I’ll probably be known as the “bacon mug guy”.

apelad “Life is what happens between explosions.” -Michael Bay

_Monocle_ Hail is a forcing function for evolution: hard skulls, carapace, condominiums.

TwoAdults How would the animal kingdom survive without Diego?

modinkpeeb I just ate my pepperoni pizza dipped in ranch like a TRUE FUCKING AMERICAN.

FinneganWilde Pants: you are now at my mercy. I shall wear you when it pleases me.

vhsTapes2 At get-togethers at my place we take prescription drugs with a spoonful of sugar to get the party Poppins!

iasshole I need some kind of timed bed spatula system.

EvenMoreSarah Left the grocery list on the counter. Noticed this morning my boyfriend added “farts.” Lucky for him we already have those in the house!

TheBosha So fuck it. Next time a collection agency calls I’m just telling them I’ve raised my debt ceiling.

theRratedBull Fell asleep with my phone on my chest. I woke up and it was under the couch. Time to go all “Paranormal Activity” up in this motherfucker.

freudiantypo Asshole who put the “don’t text & drive” lighted sign in the curve of the 190: thanks! Now we will wreck and die trying to read your sign.

apelad Now the other kids are outside playing that game where you put a ball in a sock and throw it around. I think they learned it in prison.

LaurenAntolino If my last name was Smith I would say “no relation” every time I introduced myself to someone.

PolyesterPony The best experience in the world has got to be boning someone while playing Portal 2.

MakeMommyCoffee I bet the Germans have a word for when your husband comes home with a new phone & wants to show you a hands-on demonstration of every feature

Athenabee Louis bought me a steam sanitizer for my birthday. The man knows me.

mattsai If you give a mouse a cookie, you have a rodent problem.

steenyweeny i just showed my coworkers how to use twitter to find out what’s on fire down the street and i’m pretty sure they think i’m a sorcerer now.

librarianearp Know why Cedric Diggory died? He was a flippin Hufflepuff.

lunchyprices Corn isn’t the only thing that’s knee high by the 4th of July, the dog crap in my backyard is too.

iscoff I’m studying veterinary medicine with a specialization in animal podiatry. THAT’S why my browser history has a search for “camel toes.”

LouisPeitzman Your horoscope won’t come true unless you share it with all of your social networks.

lunchyprices It’s important to me that my son is a good speller because when I need him to tweet while I’m driving or showering I don’t want any typos.

BridgetCallahan There is a direct relationship between a social networking site’s failure and the frequency of hookups you get in its chat rooms.

LPCookbook Sometimes a girl just likes to feel special! Even when it is a headhunter calling! #bringmeflowers

HarryPotterish “When I’m 80 years old, I’ll be reading Harry Potter. My family will say, ‘After all this time?’ and I will say ‘Always.’” – Alan Rickman.

EvenMoreSarah My mom is monitoring Cleveland weather online & texting me to tell me about it. I need someone to break the internet, NOW.

letsdiefriends I forgot to bring my lunch to work, and nothing sounds good to pick up. Deal with that lame-ass tweet, Twitter.

TurtleParade Tora! Tora! Tora! in my pants #improvefilmtitlesbyaddinginmypants

chickenscottpie Black Hawk Down in My Pants #improvemovietitlesbyaddinginmypants

chickenscottpie How Stella Got Her Groove Back in My Pants #improvemovietitlesbyaddinginmypants

lauracope There Will Be Blood in My Pants #improvefilmtitlesbyaddinginmypants #earlyoversharewednesday

CalcNinja The village in my pants

#improvemovietitlesbyaddinginmypants

CalcNinja Hobo with a shotgun in my pants

#improvemovietitlesbyaddinginmypants

i_cherish_u Failure to launch in my pants #improvefilmtitlesbyaddinginmypants

theleanover Cool Hand Luke In My Pants #improvefilmtitlesbyaddinginmypants

LaOrganista Mr. and Mrs. Smith In My Pants #improvefilmtitlesbyaddinginmypants

unrealsnow The Brave Little Toaster In My Pants #improvefilmtitlesbyaddinginmypants

PolyesterPony Boys Don’t Cry In My Pants #improvemovietitlesbyaddinginmypants

librarianearp Something Wicked This Way Comes In My Pants #improvefilmtitlesbyaddinginmypants

ohnoCAPSLOCK A Guy Thing In My Pants #improvefilmtitlesbyaddinginmypants

TheRedQueen The Passion of the Christ In My Pants #improvefilmtitlesbyaddinginmypants

unrealsnow Naked Lunch In My Pants

#improvefilmtitlesbyaddinginmypants

Cre8BeautyDaily While You Were Sleeping In My Pants #improvefilmtitlesbyaddinginmypants

sgnp Everything Is Illuminated in My Pants #improvefilmtitlesbyaddinginmypants

heliumcell The Unbearable Lightness of Being in my Pants #improvefilmtitlesbyaddinginmypants

letsdiefriends Me: “Do you have poopers?” Zoey: “Shoo-wee!” & starts crawling to her room so I can change her.

lilpyrogirl Grandma just revealed that the secret to her spaghetti sauce is a can of manwich sloppy joe mix. #SkeletonsInTheCloset

WordShore American TV is odd. The CBS sports update is “sponsored by viagra”. Okay.

Squirreljustice Can’t I just text M for Murder?

Jim_Hamilton I just bought only PBR and condoms while wearing flip-flops. There should be no doubt about how we do it.

thelindywest I brought a garden hose to an Axe Body Spray fight. #everybodywins

apodixis Sure, no pun was intended. But one could easily have been avoided.

apodixis I am afraid I am not sufficiently legit to quit.

Caissie How good must it feel to be a fetus finally getting out of Victoria Beckham?

theleanover Declined to go to a concert today on the grounds that “Jesus has different plans for my Sunday.” Like illegally downloading Star Trek: TNG.

lauracope testing out the echo in Joe’s furniture-less house by screaming POOP at the top of my lungs. try it sometime. #stressrelief

SpaghettiJesus Crystal skulls on syfy channel. I just want to put everyone who worked on this show in a room, turn out the lights & run through it swinging.

slackmistress Saturday night on the couch watching Criminal Minds, eating cheddar potato PopChips & wiping the crumbs on my sweatpants. Like a pimp.

jillbarber Successfully “crashed” a Balderdash party. Baldercrash: Showing up uninvited to play boardgames w/ thirty-something friends on a Sat night.

laneymg I prefer guys that like a little junk in the trunk because my car is always messy.

badbanana My new social network is an empty pickle jar that you can scream anything you want into. Nearby people can comment.

TheRedQueen I had an hour home alone today. I used it to crap in peace and then shower and shave my legs. #timewellspent

letsdiefriends When I don’t really tweet much all day, then am suddenly very chatty, you can safely assume I’m pooping.

ecsuperhero I gave Shane my phone to take pictures of the boys. I’m now deleting ten pictures of my butt.

dwmulvin Everyone’s Boyfriend White #InitialsExplained

inversejaik Learning how to make jelly. My brother: ‘Going for a JAM session?’ Me: ‘I will kill you.’

ProfessorSnack *Secretly replaces tang with Folgers Crystals while everyone watches the shuttle launch*

BSeanRoss I imagine that being married to Calista Flockhart was all the preparation Harrison Ford needed for his upcoming role in “Cowboys & Aliens.”

mattsai The hottest rack a girl has is her bookshelf.

shariv67 The last item on my bucket list is dying. How convenient.

britain I just ate a medium pizza. Dare me to drive?

Sigafoos @shinyinfo Listen, heterosexial white males aged 20-35 aren’t discriminated against! And isn’t that the biggest discrimination of all?

massagebyted Congratulations to our office manager for acquiring toilet paper that is actually less than single-ply!

steenyweeny i was up at 5:30 today, so it’s taking special effort to make sure i’m late for work this time.

KeepingYouAwake Sunglasses outside: It’s bright. Sunglasses indoors: You look like a douche. Sunglasses at night: Winning hard.

mattsai I wish life would just hand me lemonade. That would be way easier.

sgnp I don’t want to be a naysayer, but I don’t think I’m going to use Google+ until it actually lets me sign in..

slackmistress My job is getting in the way of keeping up with Twitter feuds.

shinyinfo I am a little concerned how Zefram Cochrane is going to invent the warp drive without the Space Program, you guys.

What is Follow Friday? It’s a Twitter meme that I have taken a couple steps further.  Learn more about it in my FAQ. See my nomination for a Shorty Award for Follow Friday here. You can read more Follow Friday goodness here.

Giveaway: Vintage Terrarium Book

When I was a little girl I used to love visiting my Papa and Nana’s house. We went there often but it seemed to have an ever-changing array of interesting things to look at. Their house was modest and quite small but when my dad was in grade school they built a large living and dining room addition. It housed the baby grand piano, lots of Depression-era glass, and an old TV that the cousins and I would gather around to watch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles every day after school. Under the piano, near a large, light-filled plate glass window stood this jar filled with the most amazing terrarium.

Only later in life did I find out these containers were called carboys and were intended for homebrewing, not terrariums. When the time came to move my grandparents out of their house, I took the long-defunct terrarium container home and hoped to fill it with plants and rocks and a tiny ecosystem someday.

I also inherited their vintage terrarium guide that my grandparents used to make the terrarium that so fascinated me as a child:

Recently, longtime flickr pal Mia sent me another awesome vintage terrarium guide she found at a book sale:

And now, Little Big readers, I have some good news: I found an extra copy of Terrariums & Miniature Gardens while thrifting and I’m going to give it away to one of you! To enter this giveaway, simply leave one comment below.

You can earn an extra entry on twitter if you tweet about this giveaway, but if you do, be sure to leave a second comment with a link to your tweet. Additional comments will be deleted.

This giveaway is open to all readers, not just those in the United States. In addition to the book, I’ll also send along some fun miniature items to stick inside your terrarium and give it personality. I’ll announce the winner next Thursday.

Good luck!

The Get Well Terrarium

My friend Valerie has been battling the kidney stones from hell recently, and as she is sadly without health insurance she has been battling them at home. A friend she knows is struggling through the exact same problem recently and was hospitalized for five days, but that friend has insurance. People who have means are simply more important than people who don’t, even if they do happen to have a kidney stone the size of their thumb bouncing around in their abdomen. I sincerely hope this won’t always be the case for our country.

As someone who has also had kidney problems and multiple surgeries and maybe not the best care from doctors, I felt bad for Valerie. So I did what I know how to do: I made her a terrarium.

Terrariums are lovely but are sometimes hard to get going. (I wrote a terrarium tutorial and a post about terrarium inspiration that may help, and I’ve answered a few terrarium questions via email. If there’s something particular you’d like to ask me, feel free!) The terrariums I most often create are open a bit at the top. This makes them much, much easier to establish.

Since we’re perpetually on a budget I filled the terrarium with plants from my garden. Burro’s tail, calico kitten, spider plant and an unnamed variety of hens and chicks were all included. Instead of adding a layer of gravel I used a potting soil mix with plenty of gravel and styrofoam mixed in. These succulents will have really shallow roots and the spider plant won’t mind the moisture. Only very light watering is necessary and only needed after the soil has had a chance to get good and dry.

While we were at Valerie’s the sun shone while thunder rumbled. Occasional plops of rain came down while we toured their farm but it was nothing to worry about. Right? After all, it’s mid-May. School’s getting out soon. We should be glad it’s not 90 degrees yet.

The countryside looked especially lovely framed with foreboding clouds, and as we walked around the sky grew dark and ominous. We could see for miles and several towns to the north and west of us were clearly getting a lot of rain. It made me feel like we were getting away with something.

But we were dry so we poked around the farm, chatting and watching the kids play together. Isobel followed Valerie’s daughter Ivy around and they immediately started digging in the dirt and making “cake.” We decided to see the animals and Ivy let Isobel feed the chickens. Isobel was intruiged and excited to see them until the rooster came right up to her squawked at top volume. This made Isobel cling to my legs, shaking in terror. Later on that day she was still talking about the chickens and how they were loud.

We stayed until it was Isobel’s naptime, so we said goodbye after giving everyone in the family a fairwell fist-bump. It started raining really hard almost the moment we left the house and I realized it was hailing on us. Hailing. In May. It wasn’t even cold outside.

As we drove out of the country we pointed out the various animals to Isobel. After awhile the car grew quiet except for the pounding rain and I looked back to see my daughter completely passed out. Is this what fresh air does to her? I like it.

A Hard-Boiled Detective Story

This story is something I orginally posted as a flickr set a few years ago. It amuses me and is Easter-themed, so I thought I’d share. It’s pretty ridiculous. You’ve been warned.

Shortly after Easter it was reported that Mr. Easter Peep, former resident of the oblong terrarium, was missing after he failed to show up at his job teaching Pilates at the Y.

After doing our initial investigation, we noticed this suspicious character hanging around. We brought him back to the station for questioning.

In addition to Furball we rounded up the neighbors, which included several of Mr. Easter Peep’s relatives.

Tiddlywinks the hamster was not involved in the investigation. He just likes to hang out at the station and drink free coffee.

Mr. Chickowski was up first. He lost a leg in the war and is a grizzled veteran. We thought nothing could get to him.

He kept nervously looking over his shoulder as I questioned him. He insisted he saw nothing unusual in the neighborhood before the Easter Peep’s disappearance.

Nothing unusual, hmmm? So what about the usual?

Mr. Easter Peep’s youngest brother, Easter Peep 3, could not be reached for comment. Or rather, he could, we just couldn’t understand him.

Next I questioned the middle child in the Peep family: Easter Peep 2. He was very alarmed and we couldn’t get much out of him either.

Next we questioned Fluffball himself–Mr. Zorro. He was chatting in the waiting room with Easter Peep 2 when we called him in.

He claimed total innocence.

Then we got our first big break in the case: an anonymous tipster called in with the whereabouts of the remains of Mr. Easter Peep. We never heard from the tipster again and wonder what happened to him.

The body of the Easter Peep! Found on the mean streets not a block away from his home.

The case is not truly closed. His killer is still on the loose, ready to strike again at any moment.

Craft Idea: Soda Bottle Terrariums

I’m a withered old lady at heart and if me being a crazy cat lady librarian that watches PBS and listens to NPR didn’t convince you enough already, I actually enjoy the exhibits at the county fair.

Now, some of the exhibits I enjoy because the ridiculousness keeps me cackling well after I’ve left and eventually becomes the stuff of legends, but some of it I truly enjoy unironically. The orchid room for example. The toadstool seats. And now, the soda bottle terrariums.

This year there was a whole (small) section of kids who had entered soda bottle terrariums in the fair. I squealed when I saw them, disrupting several retired ladies looking at roses who scowled at me. Get off our lawn, I’m sure they were thinking. No way, ladies. This is my lawn too and you’ll have to fight me for it. Don’t make me get off my Rascal.

I wonder if some classroom did this as a project because I’ve never seen these at the fair before and it look like they all had the same instruction.

Aren’t these fabulous?

I found a tutorial on how to make these here and am definitely bookmarking it for future use with Isobel. I posted my own terrarium tutorial here.

This is what I would love to see more of at our local fairs. (But please don’t stop entering weird stuff for my entertainment.)

MONKEY GIVEAWAY

Oh, Little Big readers. Ask and you shall receive. A few weeks ago I found a cryptic note I’d written as a reminder to myself that said only, “MONKEY GIVEAWAY.” I have no idea what that means but often I’ll write notes to myself using only pithy two-word phrases that I’ll expect to remember later. News flash: I never do! Which makes me wonder if I have another personality living inside me that likes to write notes for the sole purpose of confusing the hell of my dominant personality.

When I tweeted the discovery of the MONKEY GIVEAWAY note I think half the internet responded by enthusiastically demanding I give them a monkey. Which put me in a tough position. I needed to find some sort of monkey to give away or else I was going to look like an Internet Scrooge who was hoarding all the monkeys for myself while the rest of the internet remained chimpless.

All this happened around the time I was writing my terrarium tutorial and inspiration posts. While writing I figured out a humane and legal way of solving the problem of a MONKEY GIVEAWAY: vending machines.

While buying cat food I stumbled upon tiny plastic monkey figurines in a vending machine near the checkout lanes of the pet store. This is a particularly sweet vending machine spot because before they were offering monkeys they had offered fake mustaches. Awesome.

To sum up, I bought the hell out of these vending machine monkeys and am offering THREE SETS OF MONKEYS FOR MY MONKEY GIVEAWAY. Which means three of you lucky readers will get a chance to win a set of MONKEYS.

Right now you’re asking yourself, do you have ADD? Because you mentioned something about terarrariums. Yes I did! You guys! Tiny plastic monkeys are perfect for life inside a terrarium.

Winners, you don’t have to put your monkeys in a terrarium, but how awesome would that be if you made a terrarium, put the monkeys in them, and then posted your photos for all to see (and covet)? That would be rad.

To enter this contest all you have to do is:

1. Leave a comment. One comment. Your chances are EXTREMELY good because there will be three winners. Multiple comments will be disqualified.
2. Technically, you don’t have to tweet about my MONKEY GIVEAWAY on twitter, post about it on FB or your blog, but it does make you a better person on the inside and does possibly get you in to Heaven. Just saying.

I’ll announce the winners on Saturday morning.

Look at these little duders. How can you not want one?

How to Create a Terrarium

Creating a terrarium is incredibly easy.  If you’ve wanted to make one but have been too nervous to get started, I hope that by the end of  this post you are going to wonder what all the fuss was about. Anyone can make one, and this is the perfect activity to do with school-aged children—it’d start some neat conversations about biospheres and the processes of life.

First thing to note is that I am calling all of these creations “terrariums” even though in the strict sense of the word they are not: most of mine are uncovered environments, meaning they don’t develop their own little enclosed ecosystem. I call them terrariums to convey the sense that they are contained within glass. Enclosed terrariums are a lot trickier to establish than open ones but are still simple to put together.

Along with terrariums you may have also heard of vivariums. They are terrariums that function as a living environment for captive insects, reptiles, or amphibians. You have the challenge of creating an ecosystem not just for the plants involved but also for other creatures. Those are much more complicated and time consuming. For now, let’s just stick with plants, shall we?

Choose Your Container

The kind of terrarium you create will depend on the type of container you have on hand and the type of plants you are going to use. You’re going to want to match the plant to the container, or vice versa.

STEP 1: Choose a glass or clear plastic container. Either wipe out the inside with a rag or swish some water around in it if it’s used.

Pick Your Plants

My favorite type of plant is the succulent, but you absolutely don’t want a humid, enclosed terrarium for them. They like dry conditions and well-drained soil or else they rot. If you have your heart set on an enclosed terrarium, use moss, ferns, or my favorite, spider plants. Spider plants are always having little spider plant babies and in my experience aren’t deterred by an enclosed terrarium. Moss and ferns love a humid environment. I’ve never grown moss (it’s not wet enough around here to occur naturally) but I’ve had no trouble establishing ferns in enclosed terrariums.

STEP 2: Have your plant ready. Choose one that’s on the small side.

Lay The Foundation

Terrariums need some sort of rocky base for the excess water to drain into. Horticultural charcoal is really nice if you have it. It helps absorb excess moisture that could lead to fungus growth and rot. I’ve used it with good results, but then I ran out and just proceeded on with rocks and soil and it turned out fine. I’ve used decorative gravel from a big box craft store, treated aquarium gravel from the pet store, and actual gravel we just happened to have in the backyard. At first I was a little worried that the treated gravel would have wacky, unintended results in my terrariums, but I haven’t noticed anything strange because of it. The gravel from my yard worked just as well as the gravel from the craft store, but it wasn’t as good-looking, to be honest.

STEP 3: Fill your empty container with about an inch or so of pebbles. This depends on the size of your container, but an inch or two should be fine. If you are using horticultural charcoal, add it in a thin layer on top of the pebbles.

Add Your Soil

I usually use a sterile potting mix. If you get peat or some perlite mixed in that can help with drainage. I’ve also added in soil from my backyard, too when I was running low on potting mix. One time I created an enclosed terrarium but did not use sterile potting mix. A gnat of some sort laid eggs in the soil and within two days my lovely enclosed terrarium was swarming with tiny flies. It was nauseating.

STEP 4: Add your soil. Make sure it is very moist. It shouldn’t be dripping, soggy-wet, but it should be moist. I like to add about two or three times as much soil as pebbles, but this depends on your container. How much soil you need depends on the plants you choose and how deep their root systems go. Three or four inches of soil, or even more, has worked for me.

Add Your Plants

Moisten the soil and add your plants. The trick is to add very small plants. You don’t want to add a plant that looks like it would fit—you want to go much smaller. If you add a plant that fills out the terrarium already you are going to have to repot the sucker immediately or it will outgrow your container. Start with miniature-sized versions and expect them to grow.

STEP 5: Transfer your plants like you normally would when repotting. Gently pull it out of the pot, loosen the root ball, and set it in a hole you dug inside the terrarium. Cover gently with soil.

Add Aesthetic Touches

It’s traditional to add a little figure or statue to your terrarium. It’s definitely not necessary and I don’t always add them, but small toys can be an extra fun step in creating terrariums. When I bought my egg-shaped terrarium it came with two vintage, hand-painted figures: one a tiny mushroom and the other a miniature swan. Personally I like to add toys to the mix: a dinosaur, or a gnome, or tiny plastic ninja. It’s fun and cute but certainly not necessary nor needed.

Some people get very creative with their terrariums and they landscape the soil as they put it down to give their terrariums hills and valleys. Or they sprinkle the surface of the soil with gravel or sphagnum moss. Terrariums look lovely on their own but think of it as gilding the lily.

STEP 6: Add gravel, rocks, figures, or other decorative touches. Completely optional.

Growing Tips

The frequency and amount of water will very per plant and container. If the terrarium is enclosed and the soil is moist enough, you won’t need to do more than an infrequent misting with a spray bottle. Sometimes a trickle of water from the watering can once a week is all that’s needed. Succulents like their roots to dry out in between watering but ferns like to stay moist. If you can get a good condensation going on the glass of your enclosed terrarium, then you needn’t interfere.

Terrariums do best in indirect sunlight. Never place them in direct sunlight because the temperature inside will rise and kill your plants. Too little water is better than too much water. Overwatering promotes the growth of bacteria and fungus.

Repotting

Reassure yourself with the knowledge that some terrariums are not going to last forever. Sure, there’s the trial and error of establishing a plant, but even when things go well your terrarium might only last a season. Some plants do so well in terrariums I’ve had to repot them after a few months because they’ve outgrown their container. Some plants I’ve been able to keep going for six months to a year before they ran out of space, but some plants more and some plants less. This isn’t a failure—it’s a success.

External Links

My awesome friend Kate (whose home is so gorgeous her kitchen was featured in Better Homes and Garden) started this terrarium group on flickr. It is by far the coolest group and has tons of amazing terrariums for inspiration. Kate made me a moderator of the group and I invite people to participate whenever I can. If you create a terrarium please add it to the group! We’d love to have you.

I am not an expert on terrariums. I’m just someone who loves them and who has made a few and wanted to share what works for me. You can find more information about terrariums here:

Here’s a teaching activity about creating an environment in a soda bottle.

This guy’s all about terrariums.

I really like this site.

If you use this tutorial to create a terrarium, please share it! If you post yours on flickr please add it to the terrarium group and add a link in the comments here so we can see your work. If you have any questions let me know and I’ll answer them as best I can.