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Children love to collect posters of their favorite cartoon characters or musical heroes. These posters are relatively inexpensive, and allow a child to exercise some self-expression. Most children also enjoy working on crafts and other art projects on rainy days, when their original plans may have been cut short. Here's an interesting craft project that parents and children can do together. The end effect gives a three-dimensional effect to a child's favorite poster, and does not require materials or techniques any more dangerous than scissors and glue.

This is what you'll need in terms of material:
Several copies of an inexpensive poster, preferably with a lot of small details. A simple photo of a singer may not yield interesting results.

Scissors capable of trimming a close edge. Safety scissors are always good ideas for smaller children, but you want good crisp edges when you cut out the picture elements.

Standard white glue, like Elmer's school glue.

A sheet of thin styrofoam, from an art supply store. If this is not possible, look for foam egg cartons or old styrofoam packing material.

Now that you have all the supplies at hand, you're ready to start making a three-dimensional poster. First, set one poster aside as your 'master poster'. This is the poster that will eventually hang on the wall. Have your child study the poster carefully, and let them decide which parts of the picture would be closer to them and which would be farther away from them if the picture were real. This will help your child understand perspective in art, so trust their instincts. Once they have a clear picture of which elements to emphasize, you are ready to start cutting.

Take one of the other poster copies and cut out the individual elements selected by your child. If they feel that the cars would be closer than the buildings, then cut out the cars. If one person in a group would be closer than the others, cut out that person's outline. Occasionally, an element of the picture may seem even closer than the others, so cut a second identical outline from the other posters in reserve.

Once you've cut out all the individual elements selected by your child, then it's time to break out the glue. Children enjoy using glue, so this part of the project should really be theirs. Cut out small pieces of styrofoam that will fit comfortably behind each cut-out element. Have the child go to the master poster and glue one piece of styrofoam directly on the picture element they want to 'pop out'. Tell them to carefully place a small drop of glue on the other side of the styrofoam and position the cut-out element as precisely as they can over the original. If there are a lot of elements close to each other, you may want to wait for the glue to dry sufficiently before moving on. Continue gluing the styrofoam and cut-outs. If there are certain places that need to pop out more, then add additional styrofoam and cutouts until you've reached the desired depth. Emphasize the importance of precision to your child, but allow for mistakes and do overs.

Once the glue had dried, the 3-D poster project is complete. Hang the poster carefully. The effect of the raised elements should render a three-dimensional appearance. It's not earth-shattering, but entertaining enough for small children and easy enough for the parents to coordinate on a rainy day.