Creating a Wonderland Serial plane and environment isn't nearly as hard as it looks! All it takes is a few sharp blades, some patience, and a weekend of inspiration, and you'll be well on your way to completing a noteworthy centerpiece for a party that people will pay attention to!

Note:
This is a project involving hot glue and sharp blades. If you are young, please use adult supervision when completing this project!

Step 1: Supplies

A lot of people already have all this stuff laying around their house. What's photographed here is:

*Tracing Paper
*Bristol Board
*Various widths of Foam core
*hot glue gun
*Sobo white glue,
*rubber cement,
*Elmers Glue-All,
*Paper Maiche' paste,
*a french curve,
*ruler,
*tissue paper,
*some random paper I already had,
*mat knife,
*exacto knife,
*spare blades,
*and a self healing mat board.

NOTE: Not all of these are necessary to complete the project. I just thought I would give you different options since different papers and glues have various advantages and disadvantages.

Step 2: Inspiration and Drawing

It's very important for any project that you have a basis of where you want to start. Inspiration comes from many places, and I feel like it can be helpful to go out and photograph various things to get you started. I took these pictures and stuck them in my sketchbook which I continuously referenced for the project.

Next I quickly sketched out the environment I wanted everything placed in. I find this step necessary when building three dimensional objects, otherwise you will begin to get lost in your own ambitions. They're a bit of a blue print that can help guide you, but if you feel this doesn't apply to you, just ignore this part.

For the Serial plane of Alice, I went into Adobe Illustrator and created a serial plane by making a smaller alice and a bigger alice. There's a setting which allows you to join the two through the sizes so I just did that. Again, if you don't intend on making a serial plane and are just using this for the environment, this isn't necessary. I just did this so I could visualize how I wanted the Serial plane to fall. The drawing did the same thing.

Step 3: Serial Plane

This step is pretty straight forward. You are going to want to pick a paper that is fairly stiff, but not too hard to cut through. I tried foam core at first, but it quickly became evident that it hated me, so I switched to bristol board instead which is a bit stiffer like posterboard almost.

Draw out your Alices and begin to cut them out. Use the first Alice as a pattern or reference and make each one bigger or smaller. To make an even transition you might need around fifty planes. If you are using bristol board or a thinner paper, you will need a spine to keep the serial plane together, otherwise you'll need about seven hundred alices.

To make a spine as pictured below, you cut out small squares of foamcore and glue them between the individual pieces. Try to align them as straight as possible so if someone looks at it to the side, they will see a straight line of foam core, or at least one that curves with the piece.

REMEMBER: Change your blades frequent and often. They might be sharp, but you'll quickly notice that after a few cuts it will start to fray the paper and give it a ragged edge. You don't want this to happen.

Please be safe when handling and disposing of used blades. They are sharp and unforgiving. These little suckers will mess you up bad if you're not paying attention, so if you don't feel safe using one, get help.

Step 4: Environment

I kind of herp-derped on photographing this part of the sucker, but it's generally the same premise throughout the entire construction. To build an environment, I watched Alice in Wonderland about fifty times for inspiration until I got sick of the Chesire Cat's smiling face and I wanted to tie the White Rabbit's tail to his pocket watch.

The most important thing you need to remember is that most of the environment is build with flat strips of paper or paper that has been bunched together like the rabbit's collar.

What is difficult is how I construct a sphere out of paper. In my other picture, you see how I drew out four circles. One circle will remain whole while the other three will be cut in half. You glue two halves onto the flat sides of the circle, and then add the other halves in between the areas. Kind of how a beach ball is bisected.

After you let it try, and from above it should kind of look like an astrick ---> ( * ) you start adding oval shapes from the top of it down to the bottom so it fits between each slit. To make an egg-shaped design, you do the same thing.

Step 5: Assemble and You're Done!

Glue all of your pieces together, or whatever you've decided to include, and you're done! Be creative! Just because I made Wonderland here doesn't mean you have to! The possibilities are endless, just have fun, be safe, and make yourself a great centerpiece for a party!