Spooky Cemetery Terrarium

Happy Halloween, everyone! Last week I took a bit of a break from art projects to work on a few things around my house. Fall is such a pretty time here, so I headed out to the nursery to get some mums to plant. While I was there, I noticed a rack of small houseplants and remembered that I had a huge glass ginger jar that I'd been meaning to turn into a terrarium. So, into my cart went a few plants.

After I starting filling up the jar, I realized I had way too many plants, so I divided a few of them. The jar was gorgeous, but what was I going to do with all these leftover plant bits? I remembered I also had a huge glass dome that I got at the Pottery Barn outlet for almost nothing. I also had a little silver pedestal that I'd just bought at an estate sale - I started getting a vision. Since I have been all about Halloween lately, it didn't take too long to realize it was destined to be a little cemetary!

To created the tombstones, I cut Grungeboard using the Sizzix Graveyard On the Edge die, and then painted it with a Pebble Dabber. While the paint was still wet, I blasted it with my heat tool, causing the paint to bubble in places. When it was dry, I drug a Black Soot Distress ink pad over the surface and then misted it with water, causing the ink to run. Such a cool effect (thanks, Tim!). When it was dry, I dabbed randomly with a Distress Embossing pad and then added sprinkles of Moss and Pine Needles embossing powders. Who knew that Moss embossing powder would really look like moss?? ;-)

After I was done with all the coloring, I cut the tombstones apart. To secure them into the moss, I broke toothpicks in half and stapled them to the back of the tombstones using Tim's Tiny Attacher.

Here it is without the dome over it. The moss came from my old studio roof that was replaced this summer. So sad that I don't have a mossy roof anymore, but it lives on in my little graveyard! The tree and bats were also cut from Grungeboard and painted. I will warn you - since this is a moist environment, the tree absorbed some water (roots I guess!) and started flopping over after awhile. If you wanted to have this stay upright for longer, I would add a little wire along the back side. The tombstones didn't seem to have the same problem.

The great thing about this project is that, after Halloween, I can take out the spooky stuff and add in something for fall, and after that, Christmas/winter decor. I really want a little garden gnome for it!

Oh, and don't forget, today is the last day to enter your spooktacular decorations in the Inspiration Journal challenge! You can read all about it here. Good luck!

Sizzix Branch Tree Die Sizzix Bewitching Hour Sizzix Graveyard On the Edge Die Grungeboard Distress Embossing Ink Black Soot Distress Ink Adirondack Paint Dabber - Espresso Adirondack Pebble Dabber Ranger Dabber - Pitch Black Idea-ology Tiny Attacher Vagabond

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