Boat Craft For Kids: DIY Jewelry Box Sailboats

I am happy when I find a craft that appeals to boys as well as girls. This jewelry box boat craft certainly fits the bill. It assembles easily, is inexpensive, and best of all kid tested! (It rated 100% on the fun scale!)

Supplies needed to make your own boat craft for kids:

• White Jewelry Gift Boxes (this package contains 6 jewelry boxes)
• 9″ Bamboo Skewers
• Striped Paper Straws
• Washi Tape
• A2 Sized Envelopes (or copy paper)
• Standard Sized Hole Punch
• Scissors
• End Nipper Pliers
• Bead Reamer or awl
• Crayons (or markers, stickers, etc)
• Pennies

To assemble your boat craft, open the jewelry box and remove the cotton. Using a bead reamer or awl make a hole through then entire box about 1″ from the top of the box and centered side to side.

Be careful with this part!

Insert a bamboo skewer into the hole pointy side down.

Trim the pointy end off of the skewer to make it a little more kid friendly. 🙂 You will want to leave a couple inches of skewer under the bottom of your boat craft.

Drop a straw over the top of the bamboo skewer.

Add a fun washi tape flag to the top of your bamboo skewer.

The washi tape flag should be attached to the bamboo skewer, it will help keep the straw in place. If there is excess skewer on the top of the straw, push it through the bottom of the boat craft so the washi tape flag is flush with the top of the straw.

Throw a few pennies in the bottom of the jewelry box to help weight your boat craft to keep it from being top heavy.

For making the sail on our boats, I used A2 envelopes. I have an overabundance of envelopes, and I am always looking for ways to use them up. Plus, they were a perfect size for the sail. You could always use copy paper- or another light weight paper. The dimensions to my envelope were approximately 4″ by 6″.

I gently opened the sealed parts on the envelope, and cut out the center rectangle.

Take your rectangle piece of paper, and pinch it slightly in the center on both vertical ends. This will give you a guideline for punching holes.

Have the kids go nuts decorating their sails!

Slide your sail onto the straw.

Using washi tape, seal the box shut.

Now your boat craft is sea worthy!

If your sailboats are unsteady, move the pennies around to redistribute the weight. Or trim the sails, if needed.

Have fun with your jewelry box sailboats!

Shaunte

Shaunte is a 30-something, chocolate-loving, SAHM from Utah. She has been scrapbooking since 1997, the dreaded era of photos cropped with deco scissors. Since then, her work has evolved into a clean, linear, photo-focused style. Her favorite subjects to scrap are her husband and five kids (never a lack for subject material there).