If you’re a frequent visitor of our blog, you’ll know that we’ve been on a fairy garden kick here. It all started with my mom buying some gorgeous Plow & Hearth fairy houses. She couldn’t wait to show them to my daughter and niece and she looks forward to sharing the magic of fairies with them as they get older. I’ve taken a stab at a few fairy projects and the most recent has been an easy fairy garden terrarium that I put together one afternoon.

Benefits of a Fairy Garden Terrarium

Not only are fairy gardens adorable, there are some additional benefits of making a garden.

Creating the houses and furniture are great creative projects you can do with your children.

If the terrarium is hearty enough, it can create an invitation to play.

They look awfully cute on a sideboard.

Materials Used in Our Fairy Garden

I tend to buy the most budget friendly supplies I can. I have two little kids and a HUGE daycare bill so crafting funds are few and far between. The below items I got from our local Dollar Tree but I’ve provided Amazon links if you don’t have a local dollar store or just love convenience (Prime is amazing, am I right?!). See our affiliate disclosure for any questions.

Fairy Garden Shopping List

If you’re looking to DIY some of these items, check out the below references on fairy gardens on Kinesthetic-Kid.

Assembling Your Fairy Garden Terrarium

The dish I had was about 10 inches wide in diameter. I first decided to pour the sand into the dish. From there I would build the garden. There were two bags of sand and I didn’t really think I’d need both of them. But I was surprised how much this dish could fit! So I ended up pouring the two bags straight in.

Next it was all about laying the terrain. I wanted to make some peaks and valleys for the different elements in the fairy garden terrarium. We wanted to put a water pond on one side so I made a valley on one side of the bowl. I also knew I wanted to have the fairy house sit flush with the ground so I made another indentation on the other side of the bowl.

The glass beads were next. I used them to create some “water” in the garden. I just started placing them in my little indented area. I had 2 bags of these but only used half a bag. I could have laid them in one level but I ended up stacking a few on top of each other.

Laying Down the Moss Rocks

Next I wanted to lay down some of the moss. These were moss rocks used in flower arrangements. I had never seen them before but I knew they’d make the perfect addition to my fairy garden terrarium. At this point I realized I was going for a rocky beach type of feel. Between the small house I painted, the sand, and the “rolling hills” created by the rocks, that’s how it felt.

I worked on the landscape by cutting a few of the moss rocks in two.

Placement of the house was a big thing for me. I kept moving it around a bit. Placing some of the cut up moss rocks behind the house. It took a while to get the look I wanted.

More Moss Please

I knew I wanted a bit more moss than just the rocks were showing. Actually I guess I wanted grass. So instead of buying something separate, I started peeling some of the moss off the left over rocks.

The only thing left to do was place a few buttons down as step stones from the pond to the fairy garden door.

All in all, I had such a great time putting this together. It only cost a few bucks and it took a few minutes to assemble. Again, my FAVORITE types of activities. My daughter loved it and wanted to play with everything in it. My fault for picking SAND though as it’s now all over my house. But it was worth it. She immediately said “we need to get the fairies for the fairy garden”. It made this fairy garden terrarium all worth it.