Gotta Love Mixed Media Christmas Diorama's and How I Made Mine

For years I have been wanting to try a small diorama and finally had a chance to create one.

If you don't know what a diorama is the definition is as follows: a model representing a scene with three-dimensional figures, either in miniature or as a large-scale museum exhibit.

It's basically a miniature 3d shadowbox. 

That, of course, is right up my alley as I've been writing about the various cross-stitch shadowboxes I've either made or used over the years to finish my cross-stitch, needlepoint, and needle felted creations.  This time, however, I wanted to create a mixed media 3d collage type of shadowbox - i.e. diorama for the Christmas holiday season.

So, I started with putting together a chipboard box that measured 5 1/2" x 1 1/2" x 3 3/4". 

I had found some adorable Victorian children images that I wanted to use and a Victorian Santa image that I thought would work well with what I had in mind.

I had also found a chipboard fireplace cutout, chipboard sleigh cutout, and sisal tree that would be perfect for my scene.

After assembling the chipboard box I painted the outside and inside walls with black acrylic paint.  

After the black acrylic paint was dried I sponge painted the outsides with various green, red, and white acrylic paints, some metallic, some just acrylic.  

When the outside and inside walls were painted and dried I selected the scrapbook papers I wanted to use for the back wall, ceiling, floor and two side walls and proceeded to cut the pieces to size.  

I had selected a white paper for the ceiling, green polka dot paper for the side walls, solid green paper for the floor, and red and white striped paper for the back wall.   When the papers were sized properly I mod podged them to their respective sides.

I wanted the fireplace to be in the center of the back wall so I added a piece of the green polka dot paper to cover the back opening of the fireplace.  When it was securely in place I glued the fireplace to the center of the back wall with hot glue.

After the fireplace was done I cut a piece of 1/8" red/white striped ribbon to fit around the outside edge of the box and hot glued it in place.

For the fireplace I had a strip of pine wood paper that I wanted to use for the mantle as well as as pine garland border that I thought would look nice on top of the pine wood mantle.  After sizing both I brushed  mod podge on the backs of each and pressed them onto the mantle. 

I had also found a border strip of decorative bell, garland, and mistletoe that I thought would look good as a border along the top of the back wall.  After applying mod podge to the back of the strip I pressed it firmly in place.

I had two stocking images, three images of Victorian children, and decorative presents that I thought would look good on the mantle and in front of the fireplace so I cut them out and applied mod podge to their respective backs and then pressed them all in place.  

When I was happy with the way the outside walls and inside walls were I applied matte medium to seal everything.

After the matte medium was dry I sized one of the white sisal trees I had to see if it would be a good fit for my diorama.  It was so I glued it in place on the left side of the diorama with hot glue.  

Two decorative presents seemed a perfect decoration in front of the sisal tree so I glued them in place with hot glue.

There were only a few things left to do.  The first was to paint the front and back of the chipboard sleigh with two coats of burgundy metallic paint and, when dry,  glue it to the outside left side of the diorama with hot glue.

The second thing left to do was to cut out the Victorian children and Victorian Santa that I wanted to use on the outer edge of the diorama.  I was going to place the two children in front of the sleigh and the Santa on the border of the front right corner.  When I was happy with their placement I glued them along the border with hot glue.

I had two decorative ornaments that I also wanted to glue to the front of the sleigh.  One was a decorative chipboard sticker and the other was a decorative wreath.  Both pieces had glue on their backs but I didn't think it would be strong enought to adhere them over time so I opted to hot glue them to the front of the sleigh.

There were only three things left to do.  One was to cut two strips of metallic ribbon and fasten them into two small bows.  When I was happy with their size I glued them to the upper right and upper left hand corner of the front border with hot glue.

I had found  a saying that I liked which was "May you never be too old to search the skies on Christmas Eve" that I wanted to use on the top of the diorama so I applied mod podge to the back of the saying, pressed it onto the top of the diorama and then applied mod podge to the front of the saying to seal it.

Last but not least I applied Alene's True Snow along the top front edge of the diorama, along the bottom edge of the diorama, on the sleigh and wreath, on the bottom of the left and right outsides, and on the bottom right front corner of the box edge near the Santa.

After the snow was dried I took a look at my diorama to make sure I was happy with everything.  I was so I signed the back and pondered where I would put my new decoration this holiday season.

Copyright © 2004 - 2023 - All Rights Reserved - Written By Linda Walsh of Linda Walsh Originals and Linda's Blog. Linda is a doll maker and doll pattern designer.