Stuff for the Teen Age

A Peep-erific Idea

Introducing: JUSTIN PEEPER! Cue the high-pitched screams, swooning, crying and tears. For their spring craft project the Seward Park Library Teen Advisory Group wanted to make a Peeps diorama. The inspiration came from The Washington Post's annual peeps diorama contest. The entries are so amazing and we wanted to see if we could create something just as cool and we had a blast doing it.

We started with the idea. The majority of the entries from the Washington Post's 2010 contest reference pop culture and current events: the film Alice in Wonderland, the Pixar film Up, the book Goodnight Moon and the Obama White House. So we just started floating ideas: TV shows Vampire Diaries and Pretty Little Liars, the film Kick-Ass, someone even mentioned the idea of using the famous painting The Last Supper. However the idea of doing Justin Bieber a.k.a. Justin Peeper was just too perfect. For supplies we bought a variety of peeps in different colors—we even special ordered the brown, chocolate marshmallow peeps. Then we just used whatever crafts supplies we could find in the library—nothing fancy just glitter glue, googly eyes, craft foam, felt, wood blocks, toothpicks, cups and markers. What I love most about it all is that if we could imagine it we could create it.

Justin Peeper on stage: We put in a drummer, 2 guitarists, 3 back-up dancers, 1 large bodyguard and 1 swooning fan. We created Justin's signature look by buying a cheap doll, cutting off some of her hair and stealing her green hoody—so thanks Trendy Taylor!

Our favorite parts to make were the fans. Young, old, girls, boys, twins, moms, dads, haters, emos, stalkers, pink, green, blue, yellow... we had so much fun creating them and then coming up with their back-stories.

Tips for creating your own diorama:

1. Have a good supply of Peeps handy for when you make mistakes or deplete the supply by popping a Peep in your mouth, which will happen a lot.

2. Create the Peep person when they are fresh out of package and then leave them out to dry. When you stick them into your scene it is much easier if they are hard but be careful because they are very fragile at this stage.

3. Do not stress! One of the hardest parts of the process was wanting everything to be perfect. We had to keep telling ourselves that we weren't creating Justin Bieber in concert we were creating the illusion of Justin Bieber in concert. Meaning it didn't have to be absolutely perfect just perfect enough.

For more Peep crafts and Peep food ideas check out the book: Peeps! Recipes and Crafts to Make with your Favorite Marshmallow Treat! by Charity Ferreira.

 

Comments

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Great work Anne. Love Dad

Great work Anne. Love Dad

I always wondered ...

... what happens to the Peeps afterwards? I mean, do you rip off the googly eyes and the costumes and eat them, or just throw out the whole diorama, bunnies and all? I was wondering because I've heard that there are people who think that stale Peeps are even more delicious than Peeps straight out of the package, and that they will even poke holes in the plastic packaging just to hasten the drying-out process. Not me, of course. Peeps make my teeth ache in any form.

the future of peeps

My plan is to shellac the diorama. As for the eating, the ones in the diorama are rock hard and inedible. however, I am one of those who believes that a slightly dried is better than a fresh one - I am happily eating the peeps that didn't make the diorama..