Elmer's 3-D Bug Garden

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We recently made a 3-D Bug Garden from the Elmer’s Parent Projects web page. This is a cool 3-D bug project that pops off the page. Elmer’s rates this project for ages 5-9, so my 15 year old daughter was planning to just help out her younger brother. But she really got into this project and had a blast making the 3-D bugs, so I’d say this project is good for ages 5 and up, and adapts well to a wide range of ages.

Elmer’s Washable School Glue Stick
Elmer’s 3D Washable Paint Pens
Construction Paper
Paint
Markers
Scissors
Ruler

The first step was for the kids to draw some bugs and flowers on construction paper. My kids used white paper, although you could certainly use colored paper and do less painting in the next step.

Then they decorated the bugs and flowers with paint and markers, and cut them out.

Next they used the Elmer’s 3D Paint Pens to add details to their creations.

We used glittery paint pens, because you can never have too much glitter. My daughter went nuts with the glittery paint pens, put a lot of glitter on her designs. Luckily we were planning to let them dry overnight anyway, so they were dry before we got to the next step.

The next morning we cut a sheet of construction paper into small strips about 3 inches long. Then we folded each strip back and forth in small sections to create an accordion fold.

We attached one end of the folded strip to the back of a shape with the Elmer’s glue stick.

Then we used the glue stick to attach all the bugs and flowers onto a sheet of construction paper. It looks like the bugs are popping right off the paper.

My kids combined their bugs and flowers to make one large bug garden. They decided to turn it a birthday card, with bugs inside and out. They used the paint pens to add even more decorations to the front of the card, and drew in more flowers, bugs and the sun with the glitter paint pens.