Rainforest Tunnel Card and Tutorial

Tunnel card

There are 3 Indian card challenges going on for which I wished to participate  but didn't have the time to make 3 cards. After much pondering created a 3 in one card.

I needed to make

1.A window card with a sentiment for Anita's challenge- Lots of windows in this tunnel card!

2.A card with doodling for the Crafty JC challenge - drawing here is pretty much doodling and I am thrilled to say with a lot of contribution from my daughter .

3.A card inspired by rain for the Indian Craft room Challenge-this is a rain-forest theme card.I had to refresh my memory by researching the fauna and flora of a rain-forest for this card.

Ever since I saw the tunnel book concept I was fascinated. It looks so complicated but is in fact quite easy to make and hence sharing a tutorial.

Tunnel card

The specialty of the tunnel card is that you have to look through the window from different angles to see the full panorama.From each angle you will be able to see something new! we were able to achieve this effect in our card as you can see in the photos taken from different angles.

Tunnel card

How to make the tunnel Card [ also called Peep show]

Here I have used an A 4 sized card folded in half and cut for the front panel of the card.You can use whatever size you want.

Make the accordion spine of your tunnel card or tunnel book

• Take fairly sturdy card stock with height equal to the height of the front of the card 
• Score  lines on the card stock as shown.The score lines  should not be too close together as it will be the support for your inner panels. I scored the lines at 2 cm intervals.You can use an embossing tool or a pen which has run out of ink to score the lines.
• Fan fold or accordion fold the score lines. The number of  folds you need depends on the number of panels and how much space you wish to give between the panels
• Make 2 similar accordion folded spines 

Tunnel card Tutorial 1

Make the panels of the tunnel card

• Make as many panels as you wish.I have 5 panels here.
• You can use card stock which is thinner then the accordion spine if you are not embellishing it heavily.
• The inner panels should be the same height as the front panel and cut slightly shorter in length than the front panel to help easy flat folding of the tunnel card.

Tunnel card Tutorial 2

You can use photo-editing software, graphics programs or do it hands on like I did to design your panels.

Tunnel card Tutorial 3

Overlap images and lay the panels on top of the lower one to design the position of your images.

Tunnel card Tutorial 4

Avoid heavy embellishments on the inner panels to prevent buckling.

Tunnel card Tutorial 5

Here we have filled in the greenery of the rain forest using sketch pens. I would have like to use paint but since it can buckle the panels of the tunnel card had to avoid. 

Tunnel card Tutorial 6

Shown below are the steps to make the panels- plan your scenery, cut the aperture and complete the scenery after cutting out the aperture.

Tunnel card Panel making steps

Here is my little one helping to embellish as well as draw the scenery.

Tunnel card Tutorial 7

Here is the panel which my daughter[ just turned 5 last month] helped to plan.The red flowers and cherries + the major part of the greenery is her work.She was so proud of her work.

Tunnel card Tutorial 8

As you go to the back of the tunnel card.make the border of the panels progressively wider.This gives the best effect for the tunnel card. Cutting the apertures smaller as you go towards the back panels makes your borders wider.

Tunnel card Tutorial 9

Assemble the tunnel card

Stick the panels of the tunnel card to the spine as shown.

Attach all the panels on one side and then start attaching to  the other spine. Fold the card flat while attaching to the 2nd spine to ensure that your tunnel card will fold flat and not buckle.

Tunnel card Tutorial 10

Tunnel card top view

You can dangle light weight embellishments from the back side of the panels for added effect.

Tunnel card close up

The tunnel card will stand on its own for a stunning display.

I hope you will have fun with this tutorial. You can make a tunnel card of your holiday photos by just cutting out apertures and layering them.You can use it to make a special card or even for a school project.
This is a super fun project for little ones- they can have fun with drawing, painting and using stickers[ mine just loves stickers!!]