How To: Make a Milk-Carton Sailboat

Sailboat

Jim Cooper

Most crafts couldn’t survive the bathtub, but this schooner can tolerate sizable splashes, thanks to waterproof gaffer’s tape and vellum. The body is made from an empty milk carton—even more incentive for your child to drink up. 
What You Need
Scissors and utility knife, markers, ruler, rubber bands, glue, tape (transparent, duct, masking, or colored), gift wrap or decorative paper, kraft paper, half-gallon beverage carton, stapler, waterproof gaffer’s tape, vellum paper, decorative tape, 12-inch bamboo skewer, string

Total time: 1 hour

1

Open the top of the carton all the way around. Cut the 2 sides with a flat, nonspout flap, starting in the middle of each flap and going down to the base. Then cut around the perimeter of the base from one cut side to the other, ending up with half a carton attached to a full, square bottom.

2

Set the carton, cut-side up, on a table and fold the spout edge to make a point. Staple it together. Then cover the entire boat with gaffer’s tape.

3

Cut 2 triangles (1 small, 1 large) out of the vellum to make sails. Cut a slit in the top and the bottom of each sail. Add stripes with decorative tape.

4

Poke a hole in the bottom of the boat with a utility knife and stick the skewer through and stand it upright; secure with tape. Thread the skewer through the slits in the large sail. Make a small hole at the front point of the boat. Tie one end of the string to the top of the skewer, thread it through the slits in the small sail, then pull it through the front hole. Tie a knot to keep the string taut.

How you would do it? Share your tips and techniques

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