Cate's diorama project

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Shortly after Cate went back to school after winter break, she came home with her first major project. She was to read a book, provide a written report and create a diorama of her favorite part of the book.

I never had to make a diorama during my years as a student, so I was looking forward to working on it with her. I thought with my mad scrapbooking skills and her artistic flair, she would deliver a phenomenal final project.

In the end, I wonder whether it became more my project than hers. She drew out her four main characters, three dresses on hangars and cut them out. From my scrapbooking paper, we found "wood flooring" and green "wallpaper". She used a bed from her playmobil set, glue-dotting it to the floor Because the illustration in the book showed a rug, we conveniently used a little rug she knit for her stuffed kitty.

And that is when I went cuckoo.

I blade cut a door, drew panels on it. Cate put a pearl sticker on it for a 3-dimensional door knob. Behind the open door, Cate selected yellow "wallpaper" for the hallway. And because the book illustration included a framed picture on the wall along with a window, I found a scrapbook paper photo frame, Cate drew the same picture, setting it in the frame and gluing it to the wall. I then blade cut window panes, setting "sky" scrapbook paper behind it to show off a clear, sunny day. I showed Cate how to pleat tissue paper. Using a tiny hole punch, I slit through a toothpick for a curtain rod and hung that up.

As for the fairy, Cate added a few rhinestone dot stickers on the wings. I hung her up with fishing line and secured through a tiny nail puncture at the top of the box.

Her three girls were trickier to set up. Kyle came up with using nails punctured up from the bottom of the box and taping the girls to the nails on the blind side.

We had to make a hang bar for the three dresses. Cate glued the hangar dresses onto a wooden skewer which I then hung from the top with fishing line.

I was *this* close to adding a white floorboard and chair rail.

Kyle then helped me wrap the entire exterior with fairy gift wrap.

I hope we get an 'A'.