For us, Sundays are defined by whether the sun is shining. If it is… it’s beach day!
On one of these fine Sundays we decided to visit a beach I knew had some driftwood washed up on its shores. I wanted to finally start making some decorations for Caleb’s room – for now, a sailing ship mobile.
The gorgeous clear water of Secret Beach. This beach is just before the Blue Lagoon heading anti-clockwise around Efate, Vanuatu. Look out for a sign hidden in the foliage on the right side of the road (you can’t see the beach from the roadside).
My baby & I.
I’m using paper from Stampin’up! This paper is double sided, so will look great on both sides of the sails.
Supplies you will need are:
- driftwood pieces for the boat bases and two larger sticks to hang boats from
- thin sticks/twigs for the boat’s masts
- hot glue gun and glue sticks
- scissors
- silver baker’s twine
- double sided print coloured paper
I love this Silver Baker’s Twine by Stampin’Up! It adds a touch of pizzazz to an otherwise very rustic creation. (Just a note: Tie knots at the cut ends of where you cut on the twine as the silver thread starts to unravel.)
First up, use the twine to make a cross from two larger pieces of driftwood. Then start to play around with where your masts can naturally go on your pieces of driftwood. In the above pic, I hadn’t used any glue at this point as the masts wedged easily into existing holes.
Now here’s the fun part! Get your hot glue going (because we all know how annoying it is when you forget to fire it up!). I then searched the web using Google Images for pictures of sailboats and ships for inspiration. Once the masts are glued into place, start cutting up your sales and gluing them in place. The paper doesn’t need too much glue to stay in place, but just be patient as you hold the sails and wait for the glue to set.
Once all your boats have been created, glue long pieces of twine to the top of the most centered mast. After this you’ll tie the boats to the mobile base. You can see in the picture above that the mobile base was hanging wonky. You’ll have to use your judgement as to which sailboat should hang where in order to get the base to hang flat.
What a champ. He’s actually looking at it. Yes, he did fall over in that picture. He’s only 2 months in that photo afterall. I know.. he’s IS a big boy. He went from newborn to big baby… I feel ripped off that I missed the little baby stage (well.. it was such a blurr..).
So there you have it, an easy, cheap, and beautiful craft. Choose some double-sided printed paper and have some fun. Had it not been for some interruptions, I think I could have made the whole thing in around and hour and a half.
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