It's March!

And I'm thinking Spring as I submit my entries into the Cloth Paper Scissors Reader Challenge.  The assignment was to create a "tunnel book" in our own unique style.  My intention was to create two separate tunnel books; one I envisioned with happy colorful flowers, and one would pay homage to my favorite drink - coffee.  But after working on the colorful flower book for awhile, and then struggling a bit with the coffee book, the idea occurred that my flower book was missing something…a coffee cup!  Love when things have a way of working out like that, don't you?

Colorful Flower Tunnel Book

The pages of my tunnel book are made from thin cardboard cereal boxes covered with tissue paper.  I then painted and doodled all over the pages.  The accordion sides are made of scrapbook paper.  Vintage papers and painted wire were used on the coffee cup.

Colorful Flower Tunnel Book Close-Up

Awhile back while in a thrift shop, I picked one of those slide changer magazines that were once used in slide projectors.  It reminded me of watching slide shows at my Grandma's house with my cousins when my sister and I were little.  I didn't have a plan for it, just knew it needed to be part of my "little objects" studio stash.  When I saw the tunnel book challenge, I immediately thought of that little box and its tunnel possibilities!

Slide Changer Box Tunnel Book

The slide changer magazine is a rectangular metal box that houses 36 square "photo slide" holders that slip in and out of their individual slots.  I made a paper frame to slip inside each of the squares used in the project.  The first squares have very thin frames that are barely seen, and each paper frame gets bigger toward the back of the tunnel.  Using old family photographs from my studio stash, I carefully cut out images such as the deer, Grandma's picket fence, trees, people, buildings, a road sign, and even the ship The Queen Mary!  I adhered these cut out images to the paper frames so that when you peer inside the box, a scene unfolds before your eye, beginning with a rural field and grazing deer, traveling through an industrial area, and ending with a bridge and the blue sky.  Clouds and skyscrapers were adhered to the top edges on some of the squares.

Slide Changer Box Tunnel Book Close-Up

I enjoyed the opportunity to "think inside the box" for this challenge.  A fun feature of this piece is that the squares are interchangeable; simply slide them out of their slots and the scene can be rearranged!