I love aquatic life (especially octopuses, but that’s for another time). Several years ago, I made these submarine windows so I could pretend I was underwater. Now that I have gradually acquired a large stash of magazine rip-outs (thank you, National Geographic!) I can add more windows! This project can be done in an afternoon.

Materials

You’ll need:

• paper scissors
• construction paper
• pictures cut from a magazine or printed out
• compass for drawing circles
  

  Remember these from middle school?

• ruler
• glue
• tape

I ran out of black construction paper, so I painted a few sheets black. You can also paint a sheet of construction paper to create texture. I watered down my paint so it dried very quickly.

*You can get most of these items at a dollar store.

Steps

Window Frame

Measure the width of your picture or desired width. This will determine the diameter of the window. There’ll be limitations depending on the size of your construction paper. Let’s work with them.

The width of my picture was about 6 3/4 in. I put my pencil in the compass, and adjusted the radius of the compass to 3 1/4 in. just in case. Determine the thickness of the window frame; I chose 1 in. Draw a circle with the compass at least 1 in. from the edges of the construction paper. My window frame color was orange. It’s okay if your lines are light.

I added 1 in. to the radius of the compass. Draw a circle concentric to the first circle you drew.

Cut out the bigger circle, and cut out the inner circle so you have a border. You don’t need to follow the lines exactly. It’s okay if the width of the window frame is uneven. Keep your scraps!

Rim

If you want a rimmed window frame, time to draw another circle on a different color of construction paper. I made the rim from the black construction paper I painted. The first circle’s radius will be bigger than that of the first circle of the window frame and smaller than that of the second circle. I adjusted the radius to 4 in. Decide how wide you want the rim to be; I chose 1/2 in. I drew a circle at least 1 in. from the edges of the construction paper.

I added 1 in. to the radius of the compass. The thickness of the circle border accounts for the part of the rim that will be glued to the back of the window frame. Draw a circle concentric to the circle you just drew.

Cut out the rim the way you did with the frame. It doesn’t matter if you cut the inner circle along the line or not. You can adjust it later. Keep your scraps!

Place the window frame on top of the rim. Adjust the placement until you’re satisfied. Carefully flip the frame and rim over and tape the rim to the frame.

Bolts

Let’s add some bolts! Cut out a few shapes from the window frame color and slightly bigger shapes from the rim color. You can always adjust the size of the shapes; just make sure they’re smaller than the frame! I placed the orange shapes on top of the black shapes. The orange can go off the edge a little bit but not too much. This is when you can adjust the shapes. I glued the orange shapes to the black shapes. Carefully wipe any excess glue.

Place your newly made bolts on top of the window frame. Adjust the bolts so that they’re about the same distance apart from each other. Glue the bolts to the frame, and carefully wipe any excess glue. Put a heavy book on top to flatten the bolts onto the frame.

Picture

Once the glue is dry, place your window frame on top of the picture. Adjust the view, and keep it in mind as you trim your picture to fit behind the frame. Don’t cut so much that you won’t have enough excess picture to tape or glue to the frame. You can check to make sure your picture is smaller than the frame by placing the frame on top of the picture.

After trimming the picture, place your window frame on top of it and carefully flip them over. Tape the picture to the frame.

Make small loops of tape, stick them to the back of the frame, and put up the frame on a wall. Now, you have a beautiful underwater view!

You don’t need to make sure your submarine windows look like one cohesive view. Having multiple scenes makes this project fun!

You can adapt this tutorial to different window shapes. Some suggestions are airplane windows if you love the sky and spaceship windows if you love space. I’d love to see what you make!

Crafting into the sunset,
Virginia