Tunnel Specimens
This specimen size project was inspired by tunnel books. Choose a theme and learn how to make your own just using three punches. It’s a simple project for creative exploration without the overwhelm of creating a large complex piece or a book however you can alter it to make a mini book too.
materials
What you’ll need:
Four pieces of 2 1/2 x 2 1/2″ square scrapbook paper of your choice.
Three gradated size punches, they don’t have to be circles.
Glue
Scissors
Washi tape
Choose a theme and gather some motifs for decorating your tunnels. Some popular themes include fish, paper dolls, flowers and houses but you can choose any theme or style. Because they are small, when choosing your papers be sure to have contrasting colors, patterns or tone between each layer of your tunnel for the most visually appealing specimen.
You can also double your papers for more depth or use packaging with some prettier paper glued on top.
Follow along with the video tutorial for assembly. It’s more important to create a neat tunnel than neat outside edges because we can hide the edges with washi tape as shown in the tutorial. Tunnel books can appear wonky with irregular cut out shapes but this takes practice to create a tunnel effect.
If you choose to make a book instead of a specimen make sure your pages are aligned and one suggestion for a simple bind is an accordion fold but there are other ways to bind tunnel books.
Let your imagination soar and see how many different ideas you can dream up for creating tunnel specimens or mini books.
Happy paper crafting!
Tim Holtz paper and ephemera. The papers don’t have enough contrast between each layer to really demonstrate the tunnel effect.
This was my prototype. I realized I would need some very small items so I chose flowers to begin with. Start with a simple shape, even circles or squares as you learn to make a pleasing composition within a circle within each layer.
