Easy To Make Super Cute Christmas Cloche
Looking for a quirky, fun holiday craft that stands out from the usual? This tutorial shows you how to up-cycle a small Nutella jar into a charming Christmas cloche terrarium starring mini dinosaur figures, spray-painted pinecones and a snowy wood slice base. It’s cheap, cheerful and full of personality. A perfect festive add-on for a mantel, shelf or gifting at craft fairs.
I have three boys who all love to snack on toast. Two are very English in their tastes, one being a Marmite lover and the other lemon curd. My youngest is slightly more continental in his taste and covers his toasts with Nutella.
The other day as I was putting away the Nutella jar after my son's snacking session, I noticed that it looked like a mini glass-domed cloche. That gave me the idea for this craft.
I thought making a cute mini Christmas cloche scene would be lovely. In the past, I've made painted pine cone Christmas trees. And I'd spotted tiny pine cones in the park that would be perfect for this.
Rather than go down the traditional route of Christmas figures for my cloche, I made them more fun by using dinosaurs. The main reason I used dinosaurs is that I remembered there were still some in the kitchen junk drawer I had rescued from the Hoover many years ago.
I knew they would come in handy one day!
This is a very quick and affordable Christmas craft. In the end, I made three Christmas cloches (dinosaur terrariums), one for each son. That meant a lot of Nutella was eaten. However, I did find some great Nutella recipes on Pinterest.
These would make a fun Christmas craft to sell at Christmas fairs.
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Repurposed Nutella Jar Into A Cute Christmas Cloche (Dinosaur Terrarium)
What you need
- Empty Nutella jar - The small jars with plastic cap lids that can be used as drinking glasses afterwards. If they aren't in your local supermarket, try an Italian deli. My Italian deli always has this style of Nutella jar in stock.
- Wood slices - Either cut your own or you should be able to buy these in any craft store. You want ones that are just slightly larger than the circumference of a Nutella jar.
- Small pine cones
- Mini dinosaur figures - you can, of course, go traditional and use Christmas figures, Christmas cake toppers would be good to use for this.
- Gold spray paint
- Green spray paint
- Fake snow - I got a bag of this from my local pound/dollar store
- Masking/sello tape
- Hot glue gun
- Craft glue
How to make a Christmas Cloche
Step 1: First, spray paint your dinosaur gold. Then paint the pinecones green, so that they look like mini Christmas trees.
Step 2: Next mark off about 5 mm of the edge of the wood slice with tape. Then cover the wood slice in glue and smother it with fake snow.
When the glue has dried, remove the tape, you should have a snow-free edge around the wood slice. This will allow the glass cloche to sit nicely on the wood slice.
Step 3: Next, using the hot glue gun, stick your dinosaur figure and pine cone tree to the snow-covered wood slice.
Step 4: Finally, just add the glass Nutella jar as the dome to finish off your Christmas cloche (dinosaur terrarium). I didn't stick my cloche to the wood slice, but you can easily do this if you want to.
These mini Christmas cloches are so easy to make and fun that I want to make more. I fancy making some with the tiny figures you get with model railway sets. I need to get my boys to eat more Nutella, which shouldn't be too difficult!
Also, if anyone has any ideas for repurposing Marmite jars, I'd love to hear them.
There is another idea for a DIY cloche with this paper parrot decor. Don't forget to check out my other Christmas crafts, especially the upcycled Christmas ornament ideas.
Also, if, like me, you have a collection of old odd plastic toys the kids no longer play with, another fun thing to make with them is a toys frame medal board.
If there are a few stray Lego figures in the collection, they can be used to make a fun interchangeable Lego figure frame or some fun Lego push pins.
I've gotta hand it to you Claire these are so unique. They bring back fond memories of little boys and dinosaur obsessions.
Thank you Mary, I don't think mine have really grown out of theirs yet even though 2 of the are adults.
OMG these are adorable! My kids would love these, Just genious!! Xx
Thank you, my kids love them too and 2 of them are adults!
well these are absolutely amazing! We're a dino loving household at this end too and love this idea 🙂
Thank you, Karen.
These are so lovely Claire but — unfortunately — Nutella doesn't come in such pretty jars here in the UK!!!! I've just looked at the jars in our cupboard — sadly they're not half so lovely as these. I'm going on a mission to find some prettier jars I can use! Thanks for sharing 🙂 #HomeEtc
Thank you, Caro, you can get the jars in the UK they are in all the major supermarkets. I got mine in Waitrose but have spotted them in other supermarkets.
OHMYGOODNESS! — BRILLIANT!! We've got two jars on the go at the mo — they're both little ones though. They're not the same shape as this. Am going to have a look — maybe these are the big jars? Lord knows, we can never have too much Nutella!! 😉
You can always make brownies with the extra Nutella. They are still little jars but they market them as ones that can be used as drinking glasses afterward. I think they are the original Nutella jars. You can actually often find these old Nutella jars in Charity shops as people do use them as drinking glasses.
These are so adorable. I don't care for nutella but I may have to start eating it just for the jars.
Jamie
Thank you, Jamie. You can always make brownies with it.
What a great craft to male with the kids! I think relatives would love them as gifts. They would also be fun to make with a 4H group to donate to a nursing home or senior center for table decorations!
Thank you, that sounds like a great idea.
What a great craft for kids to do. Loving this!
Thank you, Christine.
They are so cute! I like a good Christmas decoration project.
Thank you so much!
First time to your site, this is so stinking cute, wish I had seen this when my son was little, he was a dinosaur guy...Just may have to make some of these for friends for a laugh...so fun!
Hi, thanks for visiting. I think boys of any age still love a dinosaur so maybe your friends will.
You are absolutely the world's coolest boy mom! What a fun and whimsical idea. You are brilliant my friend.
Thank you so much Lyn. Not sure about being the coolest by mum but I'll let them know you said that.
I love these. The dinosaur is such a whimsical touch.
Amalia
xo
Thank you, I just had dinosaurs to hand which gave me the idea.
Oh my gosh, I can't say how much I LOVE this!! I need to go to the dollar store and see if I can find some fake snow so I can do this with my kids. They are total dinosaur junkies and they would go bonkers for this! Such a great idea, thank you! Sharing and Pinning! 🙂 Lisa
Thank you! If you can't find fake snow you can always just paint the base white.
How on earth do you come up with these absolutely brilliant ideas Claire. The little cloches look so adorable and adding the dinosaurs is just perfect. So different and unique
Thank you, Michelle. I don't know how these things pop into my head but they just do. I just love crafting at this time of the year.
lovely! i love these! my college daughters would love a bit of whimsy like dinos in the snow, but i don't think in the united states, nutella comes in glass jars to re-use as drinking glasses. i'll have to investigate.
Thank you! If you don't get Nutella in those little jars I've seen fancy yoghurt jars that could work.
I love these!!♡♡♡
Thank you so much, if you can't find the Nutella jars you may find some drinking glasses that are similar.
Since I am totally addicted to Nutella I have plenty of jars to make these. It is so adorable and very easy to put together. I bet your son is thrilled to have a dinosaur terrarium to enjoy.
Thank you. Even though he's 15 he still appreciates a dinosaur. My little nephews are going to be making brownies today just so they can have the Nutella jars.