Geometric Succulent Terrarium DIY!

This post may contain affiliate links, sponsored content and products received at no cost.

6:00 AM

Geometric Succulent Terrarium DIY!
Can you tell how I made this!?
I bet you can't guess.
The best part is it is CHEAP!

It was a lot more work than I anticipated.
Maybe there's a better way...if you think of one,
let me know in the comments!

You will need:
Rotary cutter and mat
Old CD CASES
(didn't see that one coming, did you!?)
Stained Glass foiling tape in copper

You'll also need hot glue/gun
and some pliers.

This terrarium is a dodecahedron...a 12 sided shape.
You'll need this pentagon pattern. Print it off your desired size.
You'll need 11 faces...one will be open.

11.
That's not as easy as it sounds...but it's cheap, right!?
DIY's are sometimes more work than just buying it.
For the 11 that I got cut the right shape, there was at least 13 that didn't work.
Fractured, broken, chipped, cracked and wrecked.
This was discouraging and I was going to chalk it up in the "fail" category...

But let's have a go at it, shall we?

But I had a stack of CD cases that I wasn't going to do anything with.
I would have just had to throw them away anyways, so I persevered.

Use the pliers to remove all the edges from the cd case.
Then trace the shape with a sharpie marker.
Then use the rotary cutter, and a ruler if you aren't steady...
Roll over the lines about 6-7 times on each line.
Then turn the plastic over and repeat on the other side.

You can use a ruler to keep the lines straight...
but I got more and more sloppy as I went on.
It was so discouraging.

Broken shards of plastic sprayed all over the house too.
So there was a lot of clean up.
I tried using a bandsaw, hacksaw, dremel tool...but all of those just
fractured the plastic quickly.
This was my last resort.

Once they are cut, use a Mr. Clean eraser and remove the sharpie lines.

Perfect-ish...but did I mention cheap?
11 plastic pentagons.
Some are crackes and chipped, uneven...
But we can make up for it in the gluing stage.

Now, here's where I made another critical error.
Don't start gluing this together on your table!!!!
Place a silicone baking mat down first.
Then glue it all together.
(I had a huge mess on my table and had to pry it up with a spatula)

Much better.
You can see the glue is not perfect, it's globby and lumpy.
Whatever.

Now start the taping.
Start in the opening, putting half the tape inside and half outside,
covering that sharp plastic edge.

Then go over each and every section with the 1/4" tape.
Essentially each line will be 1/2" because I reinforced it with 2 rows.

All over the faces. Then patch up any little pieces where there are gaps.
Fill in and press the tape down firmly.
It hardly used any of my tape! I could do a couple more with this one roll!
Which makes it a really cheap DIY!

Then it's done!
Isn't it fun!!!?
Lots of work. Lots of wondering if it would work.
Ugh...is there a better way?

Now, it's just plastic, so it isn't going to support a lot of weight,
but I found a handful of small rocks, even sand and seashells would be just fine!
Cactuses and succulents would be fine too!
Just spray them with water...nothing too wet, since it's not water tight.