Coral Reef Diorama

Learn all about coral reefs and ocean life in this fun coral reef
diorama craft.

Materials

Shoebox or similar-sized box

Printable card stock or construction paper

Crayons or colored pencils

Acrylic paint

White glue

Scissors

Paint brush

Pencil

Sand

Sea shells (optional)

Paper bowl or egg carton (optional)

Steps
Most box dioramas would be standing on its wider panel. In this tutorial,
we wanted to show that a vertical box orientation can be used to
emphasize depth, which is a great concept for an ocean-themed scene.
1.
Start off by painting the inside of the box with blue acrylic paint or
covering it with blue-colored paper. You can also paint the outside of the
box if you like.

2.

Draw different kinds of sea animals, including corals and bottom

dwellers (e.g. starfish, crabs, clams, etc.) on white construction paper.
You may also print out these sea creatures and corals on card stock.
Color and cut out the animals.
Make side, bottom, or center tabs for your sea creatures. These will allow
the animals to be attached to the bottom and/or sides of your box. There
are a number of ways to make the tabs:

3.
a.) Make an L-shaped paper tab and glue this at the back of the animal's
body. Position the tab at the bottom portion of the animal (bottom tab) or
at the sides (side tab).

b.) Draw side and/or bottom tabs before cutting out your animals in Step
2.

c.) Fold a rectangular piece of paper on both ends to create a center tab.
This tab allows you to attach a paper animal to the background.

4.

Glue some animals and corals onto the background. These pieces
obviously do not need any tabs.
Paint more animals and other details onto the background if you like.

You may add other pieces on the foreground besides the paper cut-outs.
For instance, this paper bowl section (bowl cut into quarters) can be used
5. as a rock where one of the animals can be positioned. You can use other
materials such as egg cartons or small boxes to break the flatness of the
foreground.

6. Glue one of the animals onto the paper bowl.

7.

Position the rest of the animals inside your diorama. The creatures on the
foreground all have bottom tabs. Glue the tabs in place.

These swimming fishes have side tabs for gluing onto the sides of the
box. Fishes with center tabs can be glued onto the background.
8.
Another option for creating swimming animals is to hang them from the
box's ceiling with strings.

You can also make a fish hiding among corals by creating a slit each on
9. the bottom edge of the fish and on the top edge of a coral. Interlock the
slits to position the fish in place.

10.

Once all the animals are in place, apply glue on the entire bottom surface
of the box. Spoon on some sand over the glue to create a sandy ocean
bottom.
Position the paper starfish on the sand. Add real seashells if you have
some.

Enjoy your terrific Coral Reef Diorama!

11.