The Sea Calls to Me – Paper Sailboat Tutorial

Come with me and sail the seas,

On a dream boat of paper and string.

Adventures abound and wondrous things found,

Where mermaids ride waves and sing!

The overall size of the piece is 11½”x 11½”.

The teal swirls along the sides of the boat represent the boat slicing through the waves.

The adventurous ladies on the boat are from my “TheSea Calls to Me” collage sheet.

TUTORIAL

The base of the boat is a paper sailboat which is super simple to make.  I viewed several how-to videos on YouTube looking for just the right sailboat.  I wanted something that was not complicated and that had a tall sail.  The video below by Tavin fit the bill.  With 3 folds you can create this boat.  After watching the video continue through the tutorial where I will cover the rest of the steps.

For my boat, I used 12” x 12” double-sided patterned paper cut to 10” x 10”.

Once the boat was folded I removed some of the paper from the back of the sail.  I did this to accommodate an additional sail on the back and the mast.

To make the boat sturdier, I added pieces of thin chipboard to the insides of the sail.  On one side of the chipboard, I added decorative paper.  I used the sail as the pattern and cut the chipboard slightly smaller so that it would fit snugly inside the sail.

Below you can see how I flattened the boat out and glued the chipboard in place.

To create the ship's wheel, I used a combination of a gold bangle, a gold Dresden Medallion, buttons, and other brass bits.  There is a complete list of the items I used at the bottom of the post.  The medallion is colored with Patina Gilder’s Paste.  The button is painted black and then colored with Inca Gold Gilders paste( to make the design pop).

I attached the ship's wheel to a wooden skewer and then added a bead to the bottom.  The bead gives me a larger surface area to glue the ship's wheel in place.

Next, I made a mast with a second sail.

To accommodate the string, I used a piece of brass with holes.  I tied 7 strings to the brass; 6 that attach to the main boat and one that holds the small sail in place.  I poked a hole in the center of the brass piece.

I used a memo pin and glue (E6000) to attach the brass piece to the top of a wooden dowel.  I cut my dowel to 9”.  I pre-poked a hole in the dowel before inserting the pin.  The dowel is stained with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.

The sail is made from two pieces of decorative paper glued together with two memo pins glued between them.  The loop of the memo pin slides onto the dowel.  I punched a hole in the sail and added an eyelet.  One of the strings from the top is inserted through the eyelet.  The string keeps the sail in place and the sail is free to move from side to side. 

 

To the bottom of the wooden dowel I glued a piece of light chipboard covered with decorative paper.

The piece of chipboard is used to attach the mast to the boat and to keep the back of the boat from opening too far.  Make the height of the chipboard small enough that you won’t see it from the side of the boat.  The width depends on how wide you want the back of your boat to be.  In the picture, you can see that I curved the chipboard and glued it in place just inside each side of the mainsail.

One of the great things about memo pins are that they gave me a way to attach the Dresden Star to the top of the mast.  I glued two stars together and colored them with the Patina Gilders paste.  Glued in the center of the stars is a button colored in the same manner as I colored the buttons on the ship's wheel.  The double-sided banner is glued to the mast.

To accommodate the other six strings which make up the mainsail rigging, I punched 3 holes on each side of the boat.  I glued a rondelle on top of each hole.  Using a brad, I attached ring handles.  Doing it this way means that the ring handles are free to turn making it easier to attach the string and to get the string taut.  I attached lobster claw clasps to the ring handles using a jump ring and then tied each string to the lobster claw.  The string not only visually looks like rigging but also functions like rigging to keep the mast and small sail in place and straight.

Along the bottom of the boat I used chipboard swirls (you’ve seen me use these on lots of projects) to add the sense of the boat slicing through waves.  I used filigree pieces to dress up the front of the boat..

Below is the banner I cooked up for this project.  There are two so that they can be glued together to make a double-sided banner.  Feel free to use them in your art.

COLLAGE SHEET

The Sea Calls to Me Collage Sheet- Ladies,