Making a Mountain Out of a ….

…BALLOON???  Yes sir, that’s exactly what my granddaughter, Cailin, did at my house this past week.  She had the entire week off from school and a project to complete.  She was making a diorama for a book report and she chose a scene from The Hobbit.

We went through everything I had in my craft supplies and came up with some pretty ingenious solutions – no additional purchases were made.  First, she taped an upside down heart balloon on an old cardboard box.  Then she taped a paper cup on top and finally a sno-cone cup for the peak.




Then we tore up LOTS of newspaper.



I had never worked with paper Mache before but we fiddled around and made a solution consisting of Elmer's glue, water, and flour.  YUM!!  Seemed to work fairly well.


One strip at a time, Cailin built her mountain.


Normally Cailin does not like to get messy so this was a bit of a stretch for her.  But she stayed with it and completed her task – it was definitely a messy one!!


Can I wash now, Grandma??


I made some play clay and after the paper Mache dried, she filled in the sides of the mountain a bit and added a curve on top.  Then it was a lot of painting.


She painted the base, and a backdrop with a moon.  She found a birdhouse in my craft cupboard that looked like a tower and painted that.  We got pictures of a dragon and a knight from the internet and laminated them.  She wanted a lake in front of the castle and we were momentarily stumped until she spied a plastic lid for a disposable foil cake pan!!  Instant lake!!

She worked diligently all week long on this project.  Finally, it was done.  The village is burning in her scene from the book and she cut out every one of those flames from tissue paper.  The smoke is fiber fill stuffing.




Here’s a long shot of the whole scene.  She made the bridge from some balsa wood and popsicle sticks.  She will put water and pebbles in the “lake” after she gets the whole thing set up at school.  The “blood” on the dragon is red crochet thread and the “sword” that slayed him is a toothpick.  Bits of broken popsicle stick are parts of the broken bridge that will float when she adds water to the lake.  The dragon slayer stands on the platform.
Click on picture to enlarge and show details.





I am really proud of Cailin and the ingenuity she showed in using whatever materials I had on hand.  It took a lot of imagination and creativity to complete her task and a lot of determination as well. 

One final touch…we found a battery operated tea light and when she put it on top of the tower, it really brought the flames to life.



Nicely done, Cailin!