Make a 3D paper landscape

For kids Creative activities

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Make this paper scene with children as the holidays approach or for Father's Day.

A boat sailing on a stormy sea, a three-dimensional landscape to make up wonderful stories or simply take the sea air with a glance.

The design can be adapted and personalised according to the children's ability and tastes.

Material:

Templates for the waves and boat
Canson® Colorine® papers 300g/m²: 3 different shades of blue (sky blue, navy blue and turquoise), light grey
Canson® Colorine® papers in 220g/m²: cream, nut and yellow
Canson® foam board 5mm thick
Scissors
Glue
Paintbrush

Do you know how waves are made?

- The creation and power of waves depends on 3 main elements: the strength of the wind, how long it blows for and how much space the wave has to unfold.
When it blows, the wind exerts a force on the water, rippling and forming the swell that spreads towards the coast, making waves that break as they reach the sea floor and break on the beach.
The highest waves can reach 30 metres, equivalent to a 10-storey building.

Cutting out the elements for the 3D paper landscape

Download the PDF to get the template.

In order to adapt the design to children's ability, you can print the PDF in a bigger size.

Lay the wave templates on the blue papers, the foam on the cream paper and the background will be light grey. Let each child create the boat they want, adding a flag, changing the number of sails, the colours, etc.

Cut out all the pieces.

Assembling the pieces for the 3D paper landscape

Stick the foam on top of each wave.

To give the boat more volume, curve the paper around the paintbrush (or a felt-tip pen).

Putting the scene together

To create a 3D effect, each layer of the landscape will be separated by a 5mm thick piece of foam board.

To do this, use the grey circle to create the same arc and cut out the 4 separators.

Tip : you can simplify this step by sticking small cubes of foam board as a separator if you finish your creation as described in step 5 (adding a strip of paper around the landscape for an even neater finish.)

Sticking the boat

Let each child decide where to place their boat, which they will stick behind a wave.

Finalising the 3D paper landscape

If you wish you can add a strip of paper around the landscape for an even neater finish. You will just have to curve the strip of paper as seen before, bend and stick the flaps on the back of the work.

The object can be stuck to the wall, and if it's a gift you can slide a roll of paper with a message on it between two waves, like a bottle at sea.