Ship Ahoy! - Tutorial & New “The Sea Calls to Me” Collage Sheet

This is the first of multiple nautical and summer-themed pieces I have to share with you.  Titled “Ship Ahoy” the overall size of this piece is 5”x 8 ¾”.  Its unique feature is a ship’s mast with rigging which I think makes a great embellishment for any nautical themed project.  In the tutorial below, I’ll walk you through how to make a mast and how I assembled the piece

THE SEA CALLS TO ME” COLLAGE SHEET

Just in time for the summer, I have a new nautical-themed collage sheet titled “The Sea Calls to Me”. The sheet is packed with seafaring women and nautical ephemera.  Click on the image below to purchase the sheet.

VINTAGE FRAMES DIGITAL IMAGE SET

Frames are a great way to add structural elements to your projects and to create a focus on some of the elements in your piece.  I like to not only use the whole frame but also pieces of the frame or combine pieces of different frames.  The digital image set contains 60 separate and unique images with various styles.  Because these are separate images and are 300 dpi it is easy to change the size to fit your project.  Click on the image below to purchase the digital set.

TUTORIAL

To make the mast and rigging you will need string, a wooden skewer, flat toothpicks, stain or paint and hardware to serve as rigging.

Start by staining or painting the three toothpicks and the wooden skewer.  Cut 6 long pieces of string (better to have extra than too little).  Tie each piece of string to the ends of the toothpicks.  After snipping away the excess string from the toothpick, add a little dab of glue to the knot to help keep it in place.

Stagger where you tie the string on each skewer.  Note in the picture below that the strings are closer together on the top toothpick then they are on the toothpick below it and so on.
Glue the toothpicks to the wooden skewer using a strong glue like E-6000.

The base of the piece is made using a frame from my Antique Frames Digital Image Set.  For support, I backed the frame with lightweight chipboard.  The background is a piece of chipboard covered with decorative paper (front & back).  The size of the background is slightly smaller than the frame.  

To accommodate the string, I added hardware to the bottom corners of the frame.  I selected pieces that I thought looked like rigging but are actually used for making jewelry.  The pieces include lobster claw clasps (3 on each side) attached to a three-hole connector (from my stash) using jump rings.  

The combination of clasps and a connector is attached to the frame with a brad.

The frame is attached to the background using double-stick foam core tape.  This pops up the frame adding depth and also creates space for the mast.  The mast is glued into place behind the frame and in front of the background.  I waited until this step to trim the end of the skewer thereby insuring that it was long enough.

Next, thread the string through the clasps.

The ends of the tread are attached on the back of the piece.  

The strings on the right side of the frame are wrapped around a handle before attaching it to the back.

I used tape to hold the string in place while adjusting it on the front.  Once you are satisfied with the placement of the string, glue it in place on the back, trim the excess and cover the ends with more decorative paper.

I further embellished the piece with a woman, anchor, ship’s wheel and flags from the TheSea Calls to Me collage sheet.  The final touch is 3 brass seagulls.

COLLAGE SHEETS & DIGITAL IMAGE SETS

The Sea Calls to Me Collage Sheet

Antique Frames Digital Image Set