1Prepare a shoebox.

For this diorama, I used a shoebox with an attached lid. I plan to include the lid for a bigger diorama.

Keep the lid permanently fixed at a 90-degree angle by attaching a small box at the bottom portion of the hinge. Use a glue gun or tacky glue to fix the small box in place.

2Paint the box.

Use acrylic paint to paint the outside of the box. If you like the original color of your box, then you can just leave the outside unpainted.

3Paint the inside walls.

Plan the layout and details of your diorama. Paint the inside walls of your box or cover them with colored paper.

For my garden diorama, the walls are painted blue to make the sky. I covered some sections with pink paper to create the outside walls of a house.

4Add details on the walls.

Add details on the walls of your diorama. I added a window by gluing a couple of craft foam cut-outs together—one big rectangle for the window and three strips on the sides to make the window sill.

I also cut out some bushes out of green felt and glued them on one side of the box to define the garden area. Clouds out of cotton were glued onto the sky.

5Cover the ground.

Create a grassy ground by gluing a sheet of green paper, craft foam or felt.

You can also cover the ground with a fairly thick layer of green air dry clay or salt dough. A clay ground will allow you to plant or anchor objects in.

6Create some potted plants.

Try these different ideas for making potted plants for your garden:

a.)  Small potted plant - bottle caps make nice and colorful pots. Fill them with clay then plant some flowers or paper plants in them. The plant in this photo was made by cutting several leaf shapes out of green construction paper, curled at the tips, and then planted one at a time into the pot.

b.)  Large potted plant - fill a small paper cup or yoghurt cup with clay or sand. Plant several green feathers at the center to make the leaves. Glue some foam flowers at the tip of green drinking straws or pipe cleaners to make stemmed flowers. Plant the stemmed flowers at the center of the pot.

c.)  Paper potted plant - draw and cut out a paper flower, a pair of leaves and a pot. Include a bottom tab on the pot. Create a stem using a green drinking straw. Glue the flower at the tip and the leaves at the middle of the stem. Glue the base of the stem on the pot.

Create a C-shape tab by cutting out a short strip of paper (mine is 2" long) and bending the ends towards the middle. Glue one end of the tab at the back of the pot.

Add the potted plant to your garden by gluing the other end of the C-shaped tab onto the inside wall of your box diorama. Glue the bottom tab onto the ground.

7Make some ground plants.

Make some plants that you can put directly on the clay ground.

a.)  Stemmed flowers - use any of these materials:

• Flowers - flower-shaped sequins; punch out paper flowers using a craft punch; cut out flower shapes from paper or craft foam
• Stems - stick the tip of a toothpick or a short piece of pipe cleaner or craft wire at the center of a flower
• Flower centers (optional) - place a bead or a tiny paper or foam circle at the center of each flower

b.)  Large plant - cut out five or more long paper leaves. Gather and tape them together at the bottom. Carefully arrange and spread out the leaves. Anchor the plant's bottom end into the clay ground and pat the clay around it to secure it in place.

Find more ideas at our Making Plants and Trees for a Diorama page.

8Create bugs and critters.

Make bugs and critters out of paper, craft foam, felt and pompoms. Below are ideas that you can follow or use as inspiration to create your own garden creatures:

a.)  CATERPILLAR - glue several small pompoms together. Add a pair of wiggle eyes. Draw a mouth with puffy paint or glue a short string to make a smiling mouth.

b.)  SNAIL - cut out a snail's body and a round shell from paper or craft foam. Glue the wiggle eyes on the snail's head and the round shell on the body. Draw a spiral on the shell using a crayon, a colored pencil or puffy paint.

c.)  BEE - cut out a bee's body (with head) from yellow craft foam or construction paper. Cut out a pair of delicate wings from white crepe paper, coffee filter or wax paper.

Glue the wings at the back of the bee. Glue a small black pompom to make a fuzzy head or you can just color the head with black crayon. Draw black stripes on the bee's body.

d.)  LADYBUG - cut out a red oval from red construction paper or craft foam. Draw an identical oval on black construction paper, add a small round head on top, and then cut out the entire piece. Cut out three thin strips from black construction paper for the ladybug's legs.

Glue the legs on the red oval. Glue the black body on top, aligning the ovals at the edges.

Flip the ladybug so that the red oval is facing up. Bend the legs down at the tips. Draw dots on the ladybug using a black marker or black puffy paint. Glue a black pompom on the head, if you like.

e.)  BUTTERFLY - cut out a pair of butterfly wings and a long oval body from craft foam, felt or construction paper. Cut out small shapes to decorate the wings.

Glue the oval body onto the middle of the pair of wings. Glue the small shapes on the wings. You can also accent with beads, small buttons or sequins.

Glue a pompom on the head and a pair of wiggle eyes. Add a pair of pipe cleaner antennae, if you like.

9Place the bugs and critters.

Place the bugs and critters in your garden diorama. Plant some of them directly into the clay ground. Glue others on top of large objects like my caterpillar on a big leaf.

Create flying bugs by hanging them with a string. Simply tape a string at the back of the bug. Tape the opposite end of the string to the ceiling of your box diorama.

Glue a C-shaped paper tab at the back of the bug and glue the other end of the tab onto an object in your diorama. The slight gap between the bug and the object creates a more three-dimensional feel as opposed to to just gluing the bug directly on the object.

Making a C-shaped tab is described in Step 6-c above.