A DASH of Décor: DIY Christmas Terrarium Ornaments

These adorable miniature DIY Christmas terrarium ornaments hold adorable tiny treasures for you to hang on your tree.  These are easy to make and are great gifts for family and friends.

I think we can all admit that Christmas shopping can be hard.  Perhaps the one exception is when you end up in the holiday decor section of your local Target and can’t help yourself while being surrounded by all the red, white, and $3 sale signs, and suddenly discover you’ve loaded your cart with $120 worth of random decor that you never were intending to buy because you were only came to Target to look for some taper candles and heartburn prevention medications…but so it goes.  It’s so easy to buy things for yourself, obviously, but the task of shopping for friends and family can be expensive and full of headaches.

So then you are like maybe, maybe, I can craft something.  Then what?  Paper mache snowmen? No. That’s a mess. Putz houses? Perhaps, especially since you can follow my guide and learn how.  How about a meaningful and really pretty handmade ornament? Oooh, now that sounds heartfelt.  It’s also very fun to do, and you get to use and show off all sorts of DIY skills in one item.  Excellent, right? Now, let’s get to the instructions.

How to Make a Christmas Terrarium Ornament

Materials

• Clear Glass or Plastic Ornaments
• Faux Greenery and/or Preserved Moss
• White Polymer Clay
• Acrylic Paints, Various Colors
• Colored Glitter, Especially White or Clear Glitter
• Tacky Glue
• Museum Wax
• Matte White Acrylic Paint
• Chiseled Foam Paint Applicator or Sponge
• Chopsticks or Long Tweezers

Instructions

1. Start by making the central figure for your terrarium ornaments.  Before you get started, take one of your clear ornaments and remove the metal top so you can measure or reference the ornament opening as you create your figures.  These openings are very narrow, so if you aren’t mindful of that as you make your figures, you will find that you can’t fit them in without breaking once completed.  I made a couple mushrooms, a couple snowmen, a cat, and some insects to fit inside the ornaments.  I admit the butterflies were purchased at the craft store and carefully wedged in since they have wings made of feathers. Perhaps I can try making my own butterflies this year. Bake your figures per the instructions for your polymer clay.

2. Once you have your figures made and baked per the instructions for your polymer clay, it’s time to paint them and decorate with colored glitter if you so desire.

3. While the figures are drying, you can start installing your greenery in the ornament. To do this, you are going to ball up a small pea-sized amount of museum wax and drop it into the bottom of the ornament. Now you are going to take some small clippings of your greenery or moss and wedge it into the ornament. Using the long tweezers or a chopstick, maneuver the greenery over the ball of wax at the bottom of the ornament and squish it into place. You can use more balls of wax to build up the greenery to the desired depth.

4. Next, it’s time to install the figures. To do this, I stuck a ball of museum wax on the bottom of the figure and then carefully dropped them into the ornament. Using the chopstick or tweezers, push the figure into place. It may take a few tries and a bit of patience…but you can do it!

5. Now it’s time to frost your ornaments! This will help hide the wax from being visible on the underside of the ornament and also give it some seasonal flair.  I use the white paint and the sharp edge of the foam chisel applicator to dab the paint on the bottom and top of the ornament. It’s easiest to do the top or bottom only and then let the paint dry before doing the other end. Hang ornaments to dry the bottoms, and set in an empty egg carton or in a box or glass to let the top dry.

6. Once the ornaments are painted and dry, you can replace the metal tops on the ornaments (if you have not already done so) and prepare for some white or clear glitter application to really help give the ornaments a frosted look. Lightly brush some of the tacky glue over the white painted areas and sprinkle or pat the glitter over the glue. Allow to dry in the same way you would have the paint.

Storage and Packing

Once these are done, you will want to do your best to store or pack these tops up so that your hard work does not end up topsy turvy from how you arranged them so carefully inside the ornament. You can carefully clean any fingerprints or wax from the outside of the ornament with ammonia-free glass cleaner. Also, keep the ornaments away from extreme heat as the museum wax can become soft allow pieces of the terrarium to become detached from their original positioning. You can always remove the metal top piece and push them back into place with a chopstick or tweezers again, but that can be somewhat of a hassle once you’ve done all the hard work to paint them.