Create additional architectural elements, like this portico, to accomodate additional figures.
 The back wall and side walls of the manger are usually based on the creche that provides the figures. But not in this case.
Creating additional real estate

Making room for more figures—You can see in the image above left how the addition of the portico allowed us to use two extra figures: the kneeling magi and camel. Adding more architectural elements to your design is a great solution to the problem of "What do I do with all these great figures?"

With the addition of the portico, two other sets of figures were able to be placed on the proscenium itself: the standing magi and an old man and a young girl. You can just make them out in the 3d-photo, above, right.

The doves? Perch them on cornices, columns, or on a shelf in the creche background as I did. It's amazing how much these tiny little birds add to the look and feel of the piece.

The back and side walls—The photo at right above shows the manger back and side walls. You can see that the back is made up of nothing more than a copy of the proscenium minus the curtains. Usually, the manger back wall and sides is taken from the creche that provided the figures. But, in this case, that creche had only a very small back and now side walls. Normally this isn't a problem since you can create just about anything in Photoshop. But, in this case, I felt that using elements from the proscenium to creat the manger back and side walls made more visual and esthetic sense.

The side walls are based on the left and right proscenium wings. I thought of cutting the area between the columns out completely (as in the portico sides) but I ended up cutting out just the niche itself: the side walls needed to be sturdy to support the three figure planes. (Their tabs pass through the slots on the bottom of each left and right manger wall and are glued on the outside. That way the inside stays nice and neat looking.)

Outside manger walls—But what do you do about those unsightly tabs on the outside of the manger side walls? Again, here you may wish to print mirror copies of the manger side walls so that your creche will look finished on the outside. Good luck lining it all up as you glue!

Two sets of portico sides—Look at the 3-dimensional representation of the portico and proscenium (left above). Do you see that the portico sides will be seen, well, from both sides? My solution (as the photo on the right above shows) was to create mirror images of each portico side. These mirror portico sides will have to be carefully cut out and aligned to its front before assembly.

The portico sides are essentially the proscenium wings, slightly narrowed by eliminating the square motif between the two round ones.