Sail the Seven Seas Ship

No sea sickness with this boat! Easily make this fun kid craft project from FloraCraft on a rainy day. Take it out on the water and see it set sail!

Materials:

• STYROFOAM™ brand foam:
  • 10” x 12” x 1.25” Block white or green
• Other Materials:
  • Foam Cutter or serrated knife (with adult)
• Plaid® Apple Barrel® acrylic paints:
  • Black, Pure Silver, and Brown Oxide
• 2 – 12” x 3/8” wood dowels
• Wood beads
• White string
• Craft sticks
• White card stock
• Low temp glue gun or tacky glue
• Wire cutters (with adult)

Instructions:

1. Measure 3” in from the 12” side of the block and mark a line with black marker. With adult supervision cut off and set aside this 3”x12” piece for the cabins and mast supports. Using the larger block as the base of the ship, draw a football shaped oval approx. 12” long and about 6” wide. Use a scrap piece as a sanding block to sand the bottom edge of the ship to give a rounded appearance.
    
2. Using the ship as a template lay the top end of the ship on the 3”x12” piece and trace the bow and stern of the ship to cut out as the cabins. With adult cut out the cabins and glue in place on the ship. Use the scrap pieces again to sand, smooth and shape the ship. Cut two 1.5” cubes from the 3”x12” block and glue behind each cabin for mast supports. Paint the entire ship black, or your desired color. Let dry. Use silver paint to paint round port holes in the ship.
    
3. With adult, use wire cutters to cut several craft sticks to desired lengths to create the ships upper deck sidewalls, railings, and plank. Thin the brown paint with water, brush on wood and wipe off with paper towel to stain the wood.
    
4. With adult use the foam cutter or serrated knife to cut a groove in the end of both wood dowels and in the end of an uncut craft stick, the grooves will help keep the string in place on the mast. The craft stick is the bowsprit that holds the mast. Glue the bowsprit in place at the bow or front of the ship with the groove pointing out to hold the string. Glue the two dowels into the mast supports behind the cabins making sure that the grooves for the string are pointing front to back.
    
5. Cut two 5”x5 ½” and two 5” x 4 ½” sails from the card stock. The 5” sides are the sides of the four sails. Punch holes in the tops and bottoms of the sails about ½” in from the edge. Paint your desired logo on your ships sails and let dry. Slide sails onto masts.
    
6. Tie a large knot in the end of a about a 30” piece of string. Glue the knot into a wooden bead; glue the wooden bead to the stern of the ship. Wrap the string up thru the grooves in the masts and down thru the groove in the bowsprit, tie a knot to secure string tightly. Glue wooden beads to the deck to look like wood barrels.