Making a Shoebox Diorama

For a School Project or Just for Fun

The classic shoebox diorama is a childhood rite of passage. Although it can be used for school work, your children may enjoy making them just for fun. Make a diorama alongside your child today with this step by step tutorial.

All you need is a box of some type, some paper, scissors, glue, and basic art supplies such as markers or crayons.

Create a Base

The diorama base can be anything -- the traditional shoebox is only one option among many. We tend to use tissue boxes because we always have those on hand.Look around your house and especially the kitchen for any kind of reusable container -- cardboard, plastic, or tin. Think creatively! Odd things such as a cookie tin, a juice can, or a plastic ice cream bucket could make for an original diorama. Look at this unique paper plate diorama! Almost anything can be used to hold a diorama.

Create the Background.

The simplest background could simply be colored paper -- green for grass, blue for sky, brown for earth, blue for water, etc. Or be creative with patterned papers or design your own by drawing on clouds, rocks, etc.If you need a little help, try these image files at Brownielocks. Each is a watercolor painting that might be just what you need for a diorama background -- a river with grass, an autumn tree, a winter scene, a fence and wildflowers.

Make and Place your Figures

Use coloring pages printed from the Internet to make figures for your diorama. You can do a websearch in your favorite search engine by entering "your topic" coloring pages.

Color your images and consider how you want to mount them to the diorama. Below is an example of a coloring page I printed for free from Coloring Castle. I drew in tabs based on where I wanted my figures to be located.

If you want to mount a figure to the bottom (as I want the flower to be), then leave a one inch tab at the bottom of the picture when you cut it out. Fold back the tab, and glue it to the bottom of the diorama.

If you want it to hang from the top, add a one inch tab to the top.

Another variation is to use string, yarn, or ribbon to suspend the objects from the top of the box. In this way, they will swing and give more of a realistic effect. And of course, if you want a figure to come out from the side, leave a tab on the side of the image.

look in your toy chest for small figurines that would suit as well. Or build something from Lego blocks or Sculpey clay if you don't have quite what you need. Plan your placement of the figures. Once you're sure of the placement, glue them on. I like to use rubber cement so that if something is not quite right, it can be repositioned. If all of your diorama figures are inside the box, you may want to cover the opening with plastic wrap. For underwater scenes, this makes a more realistic finish.