We’re back with a craft after a really long time!! And since it’s the festive season, we didn’t look too far for a theme – here is an easy to make, colorful Christmas Diorama! The scene shows a room decorated for Christmas, all set for Santa!
This craft uses a lot of recycled materials; only a few Christmas decorations were bought specifically for the craft. If you have old decorations in stock, then you don’t have to spend anything!
CHRISTMAS SPECIAL
DIY CHRISTMAS DIORAMA
Materials Needed:
An empty cereal box
Extra thin cardboard
Colored and patterned paper or gift wrap
Old Magazines
Colored pipe cleaners
Colored pompoms
Felt in red, brown and a light color
A few pieces of sponge
Toilet roll tube
Cotton wool
Glitter foam in yellow, orange or red
A miniature Christmas Tree
Assorted miniature Christmas decorations or ornaments
Basic supplies like scotch tape, glue, scissors and paints
Construction:
1. As for any diorama, we start with the background. Open the cereal box as shown in our solar system post. Stick on patterned paper for the room’s wallpaper. Stick on plain paper to make the skirting on the wall.
2. Put in a light color felt sheet for the carpet. I’ve used light yellow for the main area and put a darker brown near the wall.
3. Next comes the fireplace. Stick a square of black paper on the wall, in the centre. Cut out cardboard larger than the size of the black paper and stick brown felt on it. Once dry, Cut out the middle portion and use double sided tape to stick it on the wall surrounding the black paper. Stick a painted ice cream horizontally on top of the fireplace to make the mantel.
4. For the fire, you can cut out a picture from a magazine. I didn’t find one, so I cut out a fire shape out of glitter foam, which you’ll remember as the sun in our solar system model. Stick it in the middle of the black paper and place a few sticks underneath for firewood.
5. Now, the furniture. We’ve made a chair and table. The chair is a single piece of sponge from a watch box. Make a slit along one side and insert patterned paper cut into a semicircle. You can also make a sofa as described in our Doll House post.
6. For the table, cut a toilet roll to the desired height and cover it with colored paper. Top with a circle of the same patterned paper you used for the sofa to make it match.
7. Now we move on to the decorations. For stockings, cut out shapes from red felt and string them together.
8. Stick small bits of cotton wool on the tops of the stockings and use cello tape to hang them up by the fireplace.
9. Make mistletoe with red and green pipe cleaners and stick them at either end of the fireplace. We also made some tiny Christmas cards and placed them on the mantel.
10. To make gifts, cut up a sponge into little squares or rectangles. Wrap each one individually and tie up with ribbon.
11. Next up, the main attraction, the tree! At this time of the year, you usually get miniature trees in stores. But if you don’t you can make one on your own – there are several DIY trees online. I hunted for a green one, but found just red, so I decided to make do with it.
12. You can use anything to decorate the tree – here’s where the miniature ornaments can help. We’ve used glitter pipe cleaners, little bells, lots of colorful pompoms and a bubble star sticker. Place the wrapped gifts under the tree.
13. We’re almost done – just final touches remaining! Santa is going to be hungry, so we need to leave behind some milk and cookies. For milk, use any small container (we used the lid of a fevicol bottle) and put white paper inside. For cookies, use anything that’ll work as a dish (we used a Lego dish) and place brown buttons for cookies. String some ribbon along the ceiling and hang an ornament in the centre.
14. Our diorama is complete!! But there’s still something weird about it, don’t you think? I mean, the presents are here, which means Santa has come and gone. But why didn’t he eat or drink anything?
15. Oh, he’s back!! Guess he just forgot about the cookies earlier! For Santa, cut a picture out of a magazine or old greeting card, make sure you find a good, jolly version!
You can customize this diorama to your liking: add some pictures on the walls, a dog in front of the fireplace, a window showing snow outside. You can also try an outdoor version with snowmen! This is really easy and kids are going to love decorating a small tree. Make this and display it till the end of the year – it’s sure to be a conversation starter!