The Cutest Mini Jurassic Land to Craft With Your Little Ones

The perfect place to play with toy dinosaurs, this land is really easy to make with some papier-mâché and paint. It also comes complete with a little cave under the volcano for your dinosaurs to sleep in. You can buy special model-making moss from craft stores and online, or hunt out your own from the garden. Collect interesting rocks, pebbles, and twigs that would look good in your little land.
 

You Will Need

• Scrap paper / newspaper for modeling
• Masking tape
• Cake board / hardboard measuring approximately 14 inches
• PVA glue and water
• Gray, green, red, black, brown, blue, and yellow paint and paintbrushes
• Scissors
• 3-4 sheets of felt in different shades of green, about 8-by-12 inches
• Double-sided tape
• Pebbles, twigs, and moss
• Scrap of red felt
• Toy dinosaurs

Directions
 

1. To make the base of the volcano, scrunch up balls of paper and tape them onto the board to create a round base. Build up with more paper, beginning to form a cone shape.
2. Twist paper into rings and tape to the top of the cone to form the crater of the volcano. Twist more paper and tape in layers at the bottom of the volcano to form a cave.
3. Mix two parts glue to one part water to make papier-mâché paste. Use small bits of newspaper to cover the volcano and cave. Leave to dry overnight then add a second layer.
4. Paint the volcano gray. Add a blue corner of sea with a yellow beach to the board, then paint the land green and leave to dry (you may need a couple of coats). For a textured effect use a sponge to apply paint to the land. Blend the colors a little to get a more natural looking landscape.
5. Use a paintbrush to drop red and brown paint around the crater so that it dribbles down a little. If your paint is too thick, mix it with a little water first.
6. For the bushes, cut a wavy strip from the length of a piece of green felt, about 3 inches wide. Cut slits all the way down one side, as close together as you can, leaving 1 inch uncut along the other side.
7. Add a strip of double-sided tape along the uncut side of the felt. Cut the strip into four random segments. Unpeel the tape and roll the felt up to create a bush.
8. From green felt, cut jagged shapes with a flat base to resemble ferns. Glue a small strip of red felt to the center.
9. Glue the bushes and ferns onto the board along with some rocks, twigs, and moss. You can lay the twigs flat or glue them upright to look like trees. Use a little masking tape to hold them in place while the glue dries.
10. Cut lots of little leaves from a mix of green felt and glue onto upright twigs to make them more treelike.
11. Finally, add a slick of PVA glue to the lava and sea to give a bit of shine.
12. When the glue is dry, your landscape will be ready to add dinosaurs.

Extract reprinted here with permission from GMC Publications, The Dinosaur Craft Book by Laura Minter and Tia Williams, RRP $9.95