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Celebrate the wonderful diversity of ocean life as you make this beautiful cardboard box underwater diorama, filled with colorful fish and plants!

If you have more than one child and you’d like them to collaborate on a project, we recommend dioramas. It’s a project that requires multiple elements, which means it’s perfect for a duo or trio!

The thing about dioramas is that you can make them about practically anything under the sun. We’ve already made a rainforest diorama with paper animals and a Halloween-themed one, so we decided to try something different this time – an underwater theme!

So here is an easy cardboard box underwater diorama that kids can put together without any difficulty. Yes, it does require some time to gather all the pieces and put it all together, but that’s the fun part!

DIY Cardboard Box Underwater Diorama

Supplies required:

• Colored craft paper
• Cardboard box
• Pencil
• A pair of scissors
• Craft glue
• Markers

How to make the Cardboard Box Underwater Diorama:

1. Download and print the Cardboard Box Underwater Diorama Template. The template contains four pages – the first two are for the cardboard box base, and the other two are the elements that go into the diorama. 

2. Trace the patterns of the first two pages on craft paper in different shades of blue and cut them out. Get at least two shades of blue, so you can alternate the shades. The third page also contains a few patterns with squiggly edges – trace these on craft paper in shades of light brown or tan and cut them out. They’re for the ocean bed.

3. Trace the last two pages of the template on craft paper of the appropriate colors and cut them out. Keep the plant cutouts in shades of green, but you can choose any colors you like for the fish and other cutouts. Keep one fish cutout in plain white paper – we’ll turn this into a clownfish.

4. Take the white fish cutout and draw stripes with an orange marker. Color the fins and tail orange.

5. Attach an orange fin and use a marker to draw outlines to make the stripes more prominent. Use a black marker to draw an eye and a smile. He’s looking a lot like Nemo now!

6. Use colored markers to draw outlines and add details to the fish, shells and starfish. Keep all these cutouts aside for now.

7. We’re going to make the base of our cardboard box underwater diorama. Take a cardboard box that’s at least two inches deep. We’re using one that measures 16 cm by 12 cm. Cut out any lids or flaps.

8. Cover the outside of the box with paper in any color you like.

9. Cover three of the inside edges of the box with blue paper. Stick a layer of light brown paper inside the fourth edge. This will now be the bottom of your cardboard box underwater diorama. 

10. It’s time to start assembling the background with the blue cutouts from our template. Pick the largest cutout and stick it on the back of the box.

11. Take the next largest blue cutout and make thin folds along the bottom and sides. Apply glue to the thin folded parts.

12. Place this layer 1 cm in front of the first layer and secure the glued flaps to the sides of the box. It should look like the image below.

13. Repeat the previous two steps with the remaining layers, moving from large to small.

14. Once all the blue cutouts are in place, glue the ocean bed layers in the same manner. Now it looks like waves moving across the ocean bed of your cardboard box underwater diorama!

15. Time to add some ocean elements to our diorama. Stick the plant cutouts in between the sand layers, keeping them to the sides so there’s enough space for the other ocean elements.

16. All that’s left to do is to add your fish and other ocean elements anywhere you like. Make a rough idea of where you’d like each piece and then secure each one in place with glue. 

That’s it – your bright and colorful cardboard box underwater diorama is done! 

We think this diorama is absolutely worth the effort and it’ll look amazing in a child’s room – or any room! All the bright colors make it a cheerful work of art, and the best part is that you can keep changing things by trying out different color combinations. So what diorama will you try next?

If you’d like to make more crafts based on fish, check these out:

• Sea Shell Fish in an Aquarium Craft
• One Fish Two Fish Paper Quilling Craft
• Easy Origami Fish Craft for Kids
• X for X-Ray Fish Recycled CD Craft
• Simple Pipe Cleaner Fishing Game