Now you should cover the inside of your diorama with a nice blue or green background so cut out a circle of construction paper and add some drawings to it. For mine I put a drawing of Atlantis. Cut out a strip of construction paper and glue it to the inside so it convers the sides. Here is a list of the materials and tools you will need to make this diorama ( you can of course get creative! And add or subtract materials)

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A bit about perspective in the drawing. See how there is big grass? This is close to us. and as move closer to Atlantis the grass gets smaller. This is a little trick of perspective that adds depth to the backdrop.

Want to print up my background of Atlantis? I have it here for you. Atlantis round background. Right click and save this link to your computer so you can print it with a paint program. Atlantis - If you have trouble with this I have also inserted it into a blank webpage so you can take a look at it and print it here: Atlantis

Now draw some seaweed. It is shaped to the circle of the cookie tin. And notice there are two different layers of seaweed. The bigger piece will go right in the front - it is taped or glued right to the inside of the porthole cover. The second , and smaller one goes inside the tin toward the back. This size difference creates the illusion of distance. Having smaller seaweek in the back gives a nice illusion of depth to the diorama. Also, I have cut, crinkled and folded the various fronds so they are three dimensional. Don't leave your paper flat!

This picture shows the seaweed installed. The large frond seaweed is attached to the back of the porthole cover and the small frond seaweed is attached to the inside of the tin toward the back. Just glue it in place.

Now we just add all our details

Here is a page of underwater stuff that I have drawn for you. You can download it, print it and cut the shapes out for your diorama. Or you can draw your own.

To get the page of fish, right click on this link and select save as. Save it somewhere to your computer then open it with a paint program. Fishies  If you have trouble with this I have also put it in a blank webpage for you to print up here Fishies webpage

It has a coral reef, scuba diver, lots of fish, a shark, dolphin, scallop, crab, eel, school of fish.

Here is how to attach your fish and other things to the Diorama. You make a little piece of paper and fold it several times then you fold down each end to make a little tab. Glue one tab to the fish and the other tab to the backdrop of the ocean diorama.

You should use the same color paper as you used for the backdrop of your diorama. this will make it almost invisible.

You are almost done! See how the fish seems to float in the water! Now add some more stuff. The diver, a shark, the reef or anything you draw. Use your imagination! It can be anything you want like a sea monster.

Then you tape the porthole right to the top of the tin just like you see here!

Now just tape the base to the cookie tin and you are done!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and I am sure your ocean diorama came out even better than mine! It was a fun project! And it is quite unique! Now this is thinking outside the box! And you discovered Atlantis along the way.

Make a Rapunzel Paper Diorama (Tatebanko)

Here is an easy scene from the Grimm fairy tale Rapunzel that you can make. I give you everything in the template. You print it up and put it together. Make a Rapunzel Paper Diorama

Make a Ship in a Bottle

We make a scene from the Odyssey. It is the Sirens and Odysseus tied to the mast of his ship. Fun project. I teach you the basics of making a ship in a bottle or how do you get that ship in there! Make a ship in a bottle