February 11, 2019

How To Make Inexpensive Moss Bowls


Moss bowls are very popular in home decor these days. 
They are quirky and beautiful at the same time.
Live moss bowls are a good way to have greenery in your
 room but be low maintenance. If you have a preserved moss
bowl there is NO maintenance. 

Moss bowls live and preserved can be very pricey.
I experimented with some items and came up with a way to 
make a preserved moss bowl (if you already have 
a container) for less than $20 with easily obtainable items. 

You will need a container, preserved moss, a filler substance
and some tape or string. 

Preserved moss is easy to find at craft stores in their floral 
sections. It comes in bags in assorted sizes and types. 

The bags of moss are seldom on sale so if you have a store discount coupon for a regular priced item, this is a good item to use it on. 

Some stores have different types of mosses.
 The mosses I like to use for moss bowls are sheet moss, 
forest moss and reindeer moss to have a variety in the bowl.
 If you want to use just one type of moss, that is up to you. 

 Reindeer moss is like cute tiny green sponges.

Sheet moss is packaged with several pieces of moss that
usually have some dirt still attached and like a velvet.

Forest moss is similar to sheet moss but it might have some areas
that are a little bit "wild and crazy".

Regularly priced each of these bags of moss were about
$7-$9 but using discount coupons each bag was $5 or less. 

The next few photos show a moss bowl made from a container
from Hobby Lobby, reindeer moss from Michael's, forest moss
from Jo Ann's and sheet moss from Hobby Lobby. All were 
purchased using 40-50% off coupons. 

Start with an empty container.

Add an inexpensive filler for the container. I used newspaper.
You could use plastic or paper bags. Junk mail? Scrap copy 
paper? Socks with holes in the toes? Rags?  Crumple them
up and use them to fill up the majority of the container. 

Make odd shaped wads of your filler to fit in the container.
I used newspaper again. I taped it with painters tape to keep
its shape. You could use string to keep the wads in a shape. 
You are going to want shapes that in the end will look like waves/mounds of moss. 

Put these on top of the first layer of filler. 
I thought mine were kind of in the shape of potatoes. 

Start placing your moss on top of the mounds of filler.
Since I was using three different kinds of moss, I tried to separate
them to get different textures within the moss bowl. 

The moss stayed on top of the mounds without gluing.
I was glad with that because I can take this apart later and 
use the moss in other ways for decorating. I save the moss 
bags for that purpose...just in case. 

If your filler shows between the mounds of moss, use a little
extra moss to fill in the spaces. 

Oh, I forgot to tell you that using moss can be a mess when
you are pulling it apart, etc. Either make your moss bowl outside
or use newspaper, etc. to keep your inside area easy to clean up.

Here is the oval container moss bowl in my living room. 


Across the living room on the coffee table I made another moss
bowl using the same technique in a round urn. 



Since I already had containers, filler and tape, the only cost was
the preserved moss. Three bags of moss using discount coupons
came to less than $20. You can copy this trendy decorating idea
yourself and save a lot of money for a moss bowl. 

If you would like to see more ways I used moss to decorate
my living and dining rooms for a winter-into-spring theme

7 comments

  1. These moss displays add a beautiful organic look that I love. I have already pinned this project. Happy Crafting, Kippi #kippiathome

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  2. I love Spanish moss... These are so pretty and relatively easy to make... Thanks for the crafty tips...Hugs

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  3. These are just lovely, Gayle! And your tutorial for the moss bowls is so helpful, too! I've pinned to my DIY Dreams board... would love to have you come and link-upj tomorrow at Homestyle Gathering by way of My Wee Abode!

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  6. Great tips for creating a lovely moss bowl. They bring some added natural elegance to a home. Happy New Years Gayle.

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