A Holly Wreath Tunnel Book - A Delightfully Altered Book Craft Project

1. Holly Wreath Tunnel Book Introduction: Hello there. I'm esta Biznack from France, and I love to make some creative artsy projects with self care and well being. I've just recently discovered the joys of creating tunnel books, and that's the reason I'm sharing it with you here. I thought of what better time to create one than for Christmas, because it's a time we all look for original and personalized gift ideas. And we like different and unique, and maybe not too complicated and handmade to make it extra special. And recently someone gave me a whole bunch of old books. And this is what inspired the idea to make these. In case you're not familiar with a tunnel book. It's a type of altered book with pages that are cut into layers to create like a three D tunnel effect. You can make them with a whole book or you can just make it with a few pages like I'm doing here. So in this course, I'll show you how to create those few layered scenes that come to life when you see them through the cut out pages of your book. And I think tunnel books can be the perfect way to store little gifts and special messages, or memories and souvenirs that you want to keep or pass on to family and loved ones. I'm just imagining my kids or grandkids finding these old books and opening them up for the first time and being enlightened and excited by this little treasure, surprise a little peak window into an illusion of depth. And these are some books that haven't been read for years and they just sit on the shelf. So I'm thinking, why not give them a new life and add joy and meaning for someone else who opens the pages. Now I have them a little bit all over my house and they never fail to give me. And also those who take a peek inside a sense of comfort and joy, or fond memory, or a gentle reminder of a life lesson, or a fun experience. And there are plenty more ideas of things that you can store inside these tunnel books. If you'd like to come on this tunnel book, journey with me, let's Tunnel Through. You can also check out the description below for more details on this course and step by step of what you'll learn without further words. For now, I'm looking forward to seeing you in class where you can create this beautiful reef tunnel. Book bye for now. 2. Magic ingredients: Here are some of the materials I'm using. First of all, very important, is an old book. Here I have a couple options. This one is really old, and beautiful brown pages, even the pages are a little thicker for this one here, it's another option, It's a bit bigger, it's quite old and used up a little. We actually I found it in the trash. I figured, well, it wouldn't be too much of a waste if I cut it up. Here I have a printout of wreaths different sizes because that's specifically what I wanted for this project. So feel free to print out what you want next. Here I have a couple books that are actually made for Christmas cards, but this will work just perfect for this project. Really, I encourage you to use whatever you have on hand, even stickers or little cutouts even from magazines. Anything you have that can help simplify a little bit, then I have here. I'm not sure yet if I'm going to be using, but just in case I have some thin patterned papers, different colors. I'm thinking of colors of Christmas Eve, pretty nature patterns, That's another thing. In case you have on hand and want to use, of course, you'll need a cutting board, a pair of cutters, a pair of scissors, a glue stick, and then a black ink pen and a white gel pen if you want. 3. Ready, Steady, Merge: In this class, we're going to prepare our pages. Prepare our book, which means merging some together for extra durability and also for thickness. I'm taking my glue stick, I find the middle of my book because I'm not going to do the whole book as a tunnel book. This is the very simple way of doing a tunnel book. If you want to do more. If you want to do the full book, then feel free to do that. But I'm just going to dab glue all over the side, my right side then the page in front. I'm just pushing it down gently but completely so that it smooths down. Just right. Then the next page, I skip a page again, put glue on the full right side because I don't know yet where I'm going to cut. That way it makes it again, even then pushing it down again. For this project, this tunnel bulk, I'm just going to do five double pages. But on some other projects, or if you prefer, you can make your pages thicker, that's no problem at all. If you want it more of a three D look or if you want the whole book as a tunnel book, then feel free to put three or four pages together to simplify. I'm just going to do double. I find that double is the minimum that you can do that I like to do because at least it thickens the pages a little bit. It's more durable. It also gives more of a three D look than just one single page. So now here's my fourth page. So the trick here is I think just to make sure you glue them really well and straight also, they open and close well and they're not crooked in that way. It also doesn't show on the edges of the book. You want to keep it a surprise, That's what I love about tunnel books, little treasures inside your book. This is basically the way that I prepare my pages for my tunnel book. Just to confirm, let me make sure I have the five that I need. 12345? Yeah, that's perfect. There we have it and I'll see you in the next class. 4. Shapes and Sizes: I wanted to start here by showing you a few different options of shapes that you could do here. I have random circle shapes, not perfectly circle, which is on purpose. I like the different shape of it. That way each one is a little bit different, helps it stand out a bit more. You can either do different shapes. Here's another example. This is one that I haven't finished yet either. This is mountainous shape. What I've done here is I've gone from small to bigger with each layer of the mountains on this side, I went from biggest to smallest with my cuts. This is just showing you alternatives that you can, you can do circles, you can do squares. But you can also get a little bit more detailed, a little bit more adventurous, and try out different shapes altogether. Now here's an example of starting with the bigger size, the bigger cut. This is one that my daughter did. She has a theme of a snowball, snow globe. Her first cut is the biggest, and then each one gets smaller and smaller each time she adds some different pictures and decors. For this one, she used circle shapes, so that's one idea, you can do your biggest shape as your first cut. And going all the way into the smallest shape towards the end of your book. With this design, you kind of have the whole overview in one go, starting from the first page. Now the opposite of that, which I'm also going to show you an example of, is going from small to big. I made a small circle here and it gets a little bit bigger, so it's kind of turning into an oval shape. And then it gets quite big towards the end. So starting small helps you keep turning the pages to get to the next bigger picture. And with this weight, it also kind of keeps it a surprise what the next page will be rather than seeing the full thing all in one go. 5. Picture Treasures: Now moving on to picture treasures, or also what I'd like to call the main picture. I've chosen a holly wreath for the main picture of my Tunnel book. For this one here, because it's a Christmas one, it will depend on the theme you're making or what it's who it's. I'll talk more about that later. But for now, I'm just going to cut out the main picture. I have one wreath for each page. Now, when you do a main picture for your tunnel book, you don't actually have to have one for each page. But this is just the way that I've done this one. Anyway, I've cut them all out very quickly. I'm going to glue them first. I'm going to just place them on each page that I want to. For this one, I'm going to make from biggest to smallest. Just make sure they're in the right order. I guess the main thing about choosing your main picture is going along with your topic, your theme more the reason you want to make a tunnel book. And really thinking of that because I think the main picture is the important thing. For example, the globe idea. You have everything related to that. Mine here is a wreath, so I'm going to have all the pages adding to the wreath. For now, I'm just going to glue the first wreath down. Then for the rest, we'll move on to the next class. 6. Crafty cut outs: Now we're ready to move on to the cutting part. Just before I do that, depending on the shape, I find it helpful to just draw the outline of where I want to cut, especially with this one, it's got so many little tiny corners and details. Then you take your cutter and you just cut away hoops. Sometimes it does mess up like that. And I realize it's when I don't push hard enough. Just make sure that you give enough pressure. Also, you want to make sure your papers are dry before you start cutting. It does get a little tiring to do the cutting. I have to be honest. It might also depend on the cutter you have. I realize this is not a perfect cutter for this project. You can find some that are easier to handle and to hold and maybe you can cut finer details anyway. I might even touch it up with some scissors if I want to. It's easier that way, especially for when I have the outer edges open. Maybe just to smooth out my lines, that's one way to do it. You can cut it directly with the picture that you glued. Another way of doing this, if you wanted to, which I thought of later, is a way to simplify The process would be to have just cut circle shapes in my book pages and to cut inside of the Holly pictures in advance and then glue that over the circle pictures. Now that I can see through the cut hole, I know where to place my next picture of the Holly because they're all the same Holly pictures. I rotated a bit to find a different part of the picture just for some variety and fun. Of course, I make sure to glue it down. Well, to simplify the cut, I didn't go through the whole process of each one because basically it's the same thing, smaller and smaller, and I ended up with a bigger one. That's what I decided to do in the end. Now you can congratulate and celebrate yourself for doing this part because it was a big, challenging part of the project. I'll see you in the next class. 7. Additional Embellishments: In this part of the course, I wanted to just show you a few ideas of ways that you could add additional embellishments or additional pictures as a way to fill out your pages even more. I'm using these two little booklets that is for making cars. And they're already, which definitely saves time. If you don't have any of these, you could use stickers. You could cut out magazines, you could draw them yourself. As I mentioned in the class about the supplies that you need. Anyway, I'm just choosing a few that would go nicely around my wreath. I'm just going to look through each booklet and pick out some that call out to me that inspire me or that fit with my theme. I like using a few titles as well. For now, I'm just placing my little collection on the side here. And then I'll decide which page I want each thing placed on. And picking some stars, picking different types of things. I have some gifts. I have a few different themes. I guess that could go nicely on a wreath. I'm also picking the colors that match the ones that I have on the holly and the berries. Certain greens, I'm not choosing because they're a bit too bright or yellowish. I do like these flowers. I think these could go really nicely because they match the berries and they're also bigger objects that stand out. And anything to add, flowers and nature. I love that these are really special too. They kind of glimmer and shine in the light. I could add an extra holly leaf somewhere. So these are kind of fun and playful booklets. They're a little childish and cute as well, so I'm not using all the little animals. I'm kind of going with U, just a natural look. I stick with leaves and holly. Then another embellishment would be to add some papers. This is when you can add some of that paper if you have. This is an option, you don't have to do this, but I'm going to do it for this tunnel book is add something else to my page. I do like to use this paper. It brings in contrast and color and it has a Christmas feel to it as well, with the little snowflakes. I'm just going to place this sheet of paper in the back so that I have a clear view of the page. I'm working on that way I can see what goes nicely, what fits well into this page without getting distracted from the back. I have these words, Mary and Christmas. And just seeing where they would fit nicely. Here's really where you can let yourself get inspired and play around with your creativity and design ideas. There's no wrong way to do this. Have fun. Then you can start gluing things down. I take one page at a time. The first page is probably the easiest one, you just make it however you want. Then the next page, again, I'm going to put this paper here so I have a clear view of what it looks like when I place things down this page. The next one is I want to place things where it would also look beautiful from the front. Because I'm going from big to small, Each thing that I place will also be seen from the front. That's why I pay attention to where I place my flowers or objects that way they're not under something. I want to show them off here. Again, I'm going to add a ripped piece of paper. This is not necessary of course, but I like to add little messages. I like to fill up my page. All right. Moving on. I didn't film every little detail, but I think I'm giving each page a different theme. The first one with flowers, poinsettas, the next one as well. This one has some gifts. Depending on the pictures that I chose, I categorize them that each page has something special, something new to look forward to. This one, I'm definitely going to add these beautiful little Christmas birds. Again, I want them to be seen from the front. For this one, I'm going to use the little colored paper to draw a branch for the birds. This shows that you can also feel free to add in your own art, your own ideas. If there's something that you can't find in your little sticker book or with your pictures that you do have, feel free to use your own imagination and creativity to make it yourself. I wanted these birds sitting on something. I just cut out a branch, like I won't see it from the front page, but at least I get to see the birds. I make sure that I glue them at the right place. Often I just put a little dab on the edge because you don't want it to glue to the next page. For this one, again, I'm going to use a darker paper for contrast. This screen is really beautiful and I'm going to make an oval shape. This is just to show you different options that you can do on each page. This time my extras would be little stars. I have the theme of the birds and the stars and the oval to write in some text, I just play around, see how it looks. Then I can glue them down. It brings out a little yellow. I like that. Here's my last page. This is ending with a big holly wreath. I found this little circle message that says, Happy Holidays. Again, I'm adding some Poinsettas, that little circle message. I think that's it for the main pictures, and I hope you have fun making yours. See you in the next class. 8. Freeform illustrations: In this class, we're going to do some free form illustrations or drawings or doodles. I have here a few pens that I've picked, black and white. And I wanted to bring in a little color as well. I'm just going to just go with flow and see what happens. I might add some red berries, maybe some little leaves around the holly. This is your chance to play and have fun and get creative and imaginative. If you want, you could copy some ideas from some other Christmas pictures here. I'm just making a white borderline just for fun to stand out a little bit, I'm going to try drawing some black holly. I like bringing in the black from the word Christmas. Anyway, I don't really know where this is going, but I just take one page at a time and see what I feel like adding to it, how I want to fill the page. This one is quite full because it's the biggest holly. I might as well go all out and fill it up even more. I'm going to draw a few berries. This is also the way you get to personalize it and add in your special touch of, you might want to paint some dabs of paint or add lots of color and really make it how you want. This is your time to shine. I like making little borders around my papers. Again, adding some leaves everywhere, anywhere I can. You don't notice too much on the brown pages or especially when it's on the text, but you just know it's there. I think it just fills it up in some way. Somebody wants to look at the details. Again here I'm going to use my white. This is not a gel pen, but it's more like a paint pen, I guess. Then I might even add some black for these little drawings and doodles on each page. You can either match each one to the previous one or to the other, or you can make each one totally different. It's really up to you. It's what you chose for your main pictures. It's also what you want to add. Maybe something that isn't on the main picture or additional ones that you added and you want to personalize it in another way or draw some details that are special to whoever you're making this for or if it's for you as a souvenir. This is where it gets fun to play with the little drawings that you can add. I'm even going to put a little bit of snow onto the branch that way it's not so cut out looking. Maybe even some pattern, some wood pattern. You can get creative. You can use your markers. Even color pencils I find to work really beautiful. This last page, I'm going to add more berries to the sides. There's no wrong way to do this at all. You use your art style, what you're comfortable with, and you can even step out of your comfort zone a little bit. You don't have to have it all planned out. This is really just getting inspired in the moment, so adding more of my leaves, Filling it up as much as I can. 9. Destination and purpose: Now let's move on to another part of this class. This is where we get to add a little bit more of a personal touch, depending on what this project is for. Here I'm adding some quotes. Since my page is all about Christmas, I thought it would be nice to have something to remind me of some joys of Christmas. Or if I'm gifting this to somebody, then little reminders of what makes Christmas special. Special family times, closeness with family and loved ones. Or special celebration moments. I'm going to cut some of these out. As you can see here, I'm just placing them in the little papers that I made. You could either write little notes or you could think of your own quotes or poems that you would like to write. Here, I'm going to write it in pen. I think it's nice to have some variety, you could print them out to help simplify the process. But then it's nice to add in your own handwriting too. Makes it all the more special when somebody receives the message. Then if you want, you can also outline it to help them stand out a bit more. Now here I'm just going to show you a little idea of how I personalize it to somebody special. This, for example, is a Christmas present for someone in my family. I'm going to cut out with the color paper again, just to match all the greens. I'm going to cut a little tag. I'm just going to make it look like a tag and just write to who it's for, of course include from. I'm going to glue it in this page. Then I'm going to take a regular notebook and just rip out a page and think I'm going to rip out the paper as well. Here is a place that I can personalize it even more by writing a letter, something specifically for the person that I'm designing this gift for. I think we've lost the art of writing letters. This is a little comeback for me making things personal and making things by hand. There's something about I ying a Christmas gift. Doesn't have to be big and fancy. If you do it yourself with lots of love, then it makes it a beautiful gift. I just wanted to recap a few of the reasons why you could make a tunnel book. You could make it to keep as a souvenir. You could encourage somebody else by writing something special, a letter or a quote that you know they would need. You could use it as a personalized birthday gift. You could make a DIY Christmas decoration by leaving the book open. It could look beautiful on your shelf or mantelpiece. It's a great way to say thank you to someone or just to send a special message. And I'm sure you can think of many more reasons for making a little tunnel book gift like this. If you're wondering for who it could be, you could either gift it to a family member, to your companion, one of your children, or a friend. I think there's no end to who you could gift this to. Even a neighbor here. I wanted to show you just a couple ideas to give you example. So here is a beautiful one made by my husband. He decided to gift me one. I've been all crazy about tunnel books and he made me a special surprise. Look how much love it's filled with. And I love how it's the three D look. And these are little Alsatian German houses where we live and he put it behind a heart. One thing that makes it extra special is thinking about what that person loves that you're gifting it to. Here's another book, another idea. This one's not finished, but it's just a little sample. Again, something that I love is houses. I thought about making this one as a little story. I've just made a little opening, a little hole to something of the picture behind. This is another idea. You could just a little peek into what it could be. And then you turn the page and you see the full picture. These are all just houses at Christmas because that was a theme, but really you can use this for anything. Here are a few things I'm going to recap. Things that you can use in the tunnel books or add to and include, you could add some quotes to make it meaningful. You could write a letter. You could write a story with this previous one. You could write a poem a little bit on each page. Or you can even write words to a song. A song that you know the person really likes and enjoys. All right, see you in the next class. 10. Final results: Here is the final result, What it came out like each page something different, a different theme, yet it all kind of follows Christmas, the same colors, the hollies, the poinsetta, and my cat enjoyed it too. I'm still going to personalize it to somebody in my family. Since we're each gifting something special this year to one another, I think this will make for a beautiful, personalized gift. I'm going to personalize it to that person, include some things that they love. That's the wonderful thing about a tunnel book. I wanted to also show you a couple other tunnel books that I've created. Again, I've just made them very simple, just using a few pages of the book. Although for a tunnel book, you can use the whole book if you want it to, including the cover. This is another one. This is an all year round. I want it to include a little bunny because I love drawing bunnies and flowers. And this one just leads up to this end picture, which is also some loving words and reminders to myself. This was like for my own well being. Here's another one again, these really beautiful old books which I've been collecting for a little while. I didn't know what to use them for now here I'm full of ideas. Here's another one. This is on the theme of rest, resting, relaxing, enjoying. Again, this was a note to self because it's what I needed at the time. And that's the wonderful thing about these books. You can go back to them and remember that little souvenir. And also, I love to be reminded of these quotes because they're little life lessons. And whatever I add pictures, cutouts, and the little words, Each little thing says something. That's what makes this project so wonderful and meaningful and a beautiful souvenir to go back to. That's when I've even added a fold out page. I just love to get creative and add any, anything different, anything special. I love each book being a little bit different as well. Anyway, that was it. That's the end of the chorus. So congratulations. I'm so happy that you joined me and I'm so looking forward to your projects as well. Please send photos. Please share the joys with everyone here.