So I have been thinking about doing a paper boat for a while now. I have spent what I have felt to be hours looking for tutorials on Pinterest. All I could find were origami and paper Marche boats.
So as any good designer and maker does, I decided to design my own boat.
The initial thought was to use a technique I had used for a project years ago, for the hull. From there everything else fell into place pretty quickly. What did take time though was the creation of the templates. A few of the pieces had to fit exactly and that took a little time to get it right.
My trusty Cricut worked hard this time. And what I came up with is not only easy to put together but looks pretty awesome too.
Check out the tutorial below
Here are the two links to the Cricut templates: sails and boat. And if you don’t have an electronic cutting machine, here is a template that you can print and use to cut on your pieces in the right cardstock. Make sure that you cut two each of the bench and the bench leg. And then if using patterned paper, make sure to cut two each of the headsail and the mainsail. And also make sure you cut the mirror image of the patterned paper / cardstock.
Supplies: template as well as cardstock to cut the following pieces: 2 pieces each of the headsail (ii, 2 pieces each of the mainsail, 1 piece of the big hull, 1 piece of the small hull, 1 piece of the bottom of boat, 1 piece of the bottom of the boat score aid, 2 pieces of the bench, 2 pieces of the bench legs, 1 kebab stick for a mast 7 inches long, a scoring aid (I generally use a nail file), contact cement, hot glue, binder clips (not shown)
Center the small hull on the big hull and hold it in place with binder clips.
Score on the big hull right where the small hull ends.
Repeat on the other side then remove the small hull.
Fold in along the fold lines.
Snip off the top of the folded edge that lies over the top of the hull edge.
Apply contact cement on both the folded edges of the big hull and the small hull. Make sure that the cement applied on the small hull is only as wide as the folded edge of the big hull. OF NOTE: I used Elmers contact cement because if the glue ends up in places it shouldn’t be, wait for it to dry then just rub it off. Of most adhesives that you can use, this is the one of the cleanest if not the cleanest. If working with younger kids who more often then not spread the glue beyond the area that needs it, this gives a much cleaner finished project.
Attache the big and the small hull pieces together and then set aside.
Next, center the bottom of boat score aid on the bottom of boat. Use binder clips to hold the score aid in place then score around.
Remove the score aid then cut off both pointed tips up to the score line. Then make snips from the edge to the score line about .5 inch apart.
Then fold up on the score line, apply glue to the folded section. Also apply glue to the bottom edge of the bottom of the hull on the inside.
Insert the bottom of the boat into the bottom of the hull. I find it is easier to insert it in from the top.
Make any necessary adjustments until the bottom of the boat lies flush with the bottom of the hull.
This is what it looks like on the inside from the top. Set aside to set.
Not it is time to put the benches together. Take the bench leg and score using the following dimensions (please use the image above as guide to the proper placement of the scored lines): half an inch from the the edge, 1 inch from the edge and finally 1.25 from the edge. Repeat on the other side.
This is what it should look like.
Fold on the scored line so that it looks like the above shape. Apply glue to the inside of the bench leg up until the closest score lines to the edges. Using the image above fold as follows: bring corners A and B together to meet at the point C. They should lie flat. Then bring corner D and E together. Hold in place or use binder clips until glue sets.
Finally add the bench seat so that it runs parallel to the bench feet, as shown above. Set aside for the glue to set.
Take the deck and pierce a hole in the center that is just big enough for the mast to go through. Since you will be using kebab sticks, you will want to insert it the pointy side first.
Then adhere the benches onto the deck. Again make any necessary adjustments so that when the deck is fitted onto the boat, the edges of the bench lie flush against the sides of the boat. Set aside to set.
Since I was using patterned paper for the sails, my first step was to adhere each of the sails to its mirror.
Make any adjustment necessary to make sure that the edges line up.
Next, insert the mast from the top of the deck.
Apply hot glue around the mast on the bottom of the deck so that it holds it in place.
Adhere the sails to the mast as follows: the bigger sail goes on top and the smaller sail is set just about half an inch lower than the big sail.
One final step: every boat needs a name so I decided to name this one Unicorns. Now to be honest, the full name was supposed to be Unicorn Dreams but this was the first time I was trying to cut vinyl on my Cricut and had a few issues. So the only word that came out was Unicorn.
I will have to admit that I think the boats came out really well. I felt like a 3 year old and wanted to shout it out to the world: I did it all by myself!!! As you can see above, I experimented with several types of cardstock. I even made the blue boat’s sails with fabric.