Peer through the peephole in the end of a shoebox, and enter another world. A wrecked ship lies on a sandy sea-floor. Peering between seaweed fronds, you spot colourful fish, a treasure chest, and an octopus...
Kids find this project fascinating, and it's wonderful for developing their creativity. (Suits children age 7 and up)
What you'll need:
Cardboard shoebox with a lid
Clear and coloured cellophane - green, yellow or blue
Dry sand
White craft glue
Stiff cardboard
Scissors, pencil
Acrylic or water-colour paints
Transparent or black sewing thread
Sticky tape
What to do:
Cut a small peephole right in the centre of one end of the shoebox. An adult may need to help with this.
Cut a 3cm wide opening across the width of the top of the lid, at the end nearest the peephole.
Cut a 6cm wide opening across the width of the top of the lid, about 6cm in from the other end.
On the cardboard, draw the features you'd like to put in your diorama. Draw a sunken wreck, a treasure chest, some fish of different sizes, an octopus, and lots of pieces of seaweed. Make sure you draw some extra tabs onto the bases of anything which needs to be glued to the sea-floor (seaweed, wreck, octopus), and onto one side of some of the seaweed so that you can glue it to one side of the box.
Paint your creations in bright colours, and cut them out, remembering to leave the tabs on. Paint both sides of anything you want to hang from the lid (fish)
Paint the insides of the box in sea colours - blue sea with green and brown seaweed.
Look through the peephole, and decide on the best places to glue your wreck and the pieces of seaweed. It looks best if you have ovelapping pieces of seaweed, some near the front, and others near the back of the diorama, with the wreck somewhere in the middle, and the octopus in front of it. Glue the tabs to the base of the box (the sea-floor), and some of the seaweed onto the sides. Leave to dry.
Spread white glue thickly over the floor of the inside of the box and sprinkle sand over it until you can't see the cardboard underneath. Shake gently sideways, then leave to dry.
Turn the box upside down outside, and shake out the excess sand.
Now look through the peephole again and decide where to hang your fish. Hang some of them where you can see them, and leave others partly visible between strands of seaweed. Work out where you need to hang them from on the lid. Tape thread to the top of each fish, then tape it to the inside of the lid at the right place. You may need to re-tape or adjust the thread to get them to face in the right direction.
Fish Crafts: The diorama from above
Next decide which colour of cellophane to use. Peer through the peephole while holding the different colours over the lid. Clear cellophane lets in the most light and keeps your painted colours the same, but green, blue or yellow will give more atmosphere. Experiment to see which looks best. If the colour's too dark, you'll need to hold your diorama under a light or in the sun to look into it, or enlarge the openings on the top.
Cut pieces of cellophane just bigger than the openings in the lid. Tape them onto the inside of the lid to cover the openings.
If you like, decorate the outside of your diorama.
Well done! Enjoy the compliments you get from all who dare to look in.
Make a diorama for a different scene. How about a spacecraft landing on another planet, a Christmas scene, or a cat stalking a mouse amongst the flowers?
You could hang birds, spaceships or insects from the 'sky', depending on your theme.
