Guide

Crafting from construction site waste

6.8.2019

Translation: machine translated

As we are currently renovating our house, I made a colourful (building site) boat with my children from the leftover wood from the roofers. I'll also give you a few tips on what you should look out for when doing children's crafts if you don't have much time.

The remodelling of our house is currently in full swing. There's a lot to discuss and organise. As a mum, I don't feel like I have any time for DIY at the moment, but my children do. As we are often on the building site at the moment, a lot is happening in this context. That's how this colourful boat came about. We quickly moved our craft room to the building site as my son doesn't want to miss out on anything there. 😀

What you need

The boat consists of a wooden board at least one centimetre thick, the size doesn't matter. For the mast and sails, you need a round timber, silicone thread and colourful wood beads. For the colourful paint, we use finger paints. You will also need the following tools for this craft project: wood drill, brush and scissors.

Boat ownership in 4 steps

1. Drill a hole in the centre of each short side of the wooden board (there should be a 1 cm gap to the edge). The hole should have approximately the same diameter as the silicone thread that will later be threaded through it
.
2. Cut the round timber to your desired pole length. Drill a hole at one end at a slight distance from the edge, the diameter is the same as in step 1. Then drill a hole in the centre of the wooden board and insert the round timber. If necessary, you can help a little with a hammer.

3. Now your children can paint the boat with finger paints. Then you can put the boat on its side to dry.

4. As soon as the boat is dry, thread the silicone thread through the wooden board on one side and fill it up to the mast with beads. Then push the thread through the hole in the mast. Finally, you can fill the thread with beads again up to the surface of the boat. Finally, push the thread through the hole and tie a knot on the other side. Your boat is ready!

At the end of this craft project, your children will have both arms full of paint, but the sparkle in their eyes will make up for the cleaning. You are now boat owners! Now it's time to fill the paddling pool with water and off you go on your boat trip. Full speed ahead!

Finger paint is not the best option due to contact with water. If you want your boat to stay beautiful for longer, you need to paint your boat. We didn't do this because my children have more fun painting with finger paint. If our boats don't look so pretty any more, we just make a few new ones.

Kids want to do crafts and mum doesn't have time

During the summer holidays in particular, it often happens that I have lots of things to do, household chores or other things on my to-do list. At the same time, the children are at home and want to be entertained with arts and crafts. What should I do?

I've found a good system for getting everything under one roof. I would like to pass these tips on to you:

Prepare the crafts for your child in a place where nobody will be bothered if it's not tidy afterwards.
Supply crafts that your child can do independently, so you can quickly empty the dishwasher at the same time.
The journey is the reward! Your child makes things because they like doing them. So just let your child do it, it doesn't have to be perfect.
Be sure to dress your child in a craft apron or dirty clothes. This will prevent stress.
Clarify in advance how long the craft can last. That way, your child is prepared and the activity won't end in a tantrum. -

Since we have been doing this, it has almost always gone smoothly. However, there will never be a guarantee.

Enjoy the rest of the holiday season and have fun with the many colourful ship crafts!

6 people like this article

Yvonne Moser

ramon.schneider@digitecgalaxus.ch

I'm more of a thinker than a doer. Yet I'm still always active: crafting, sewing, writing to-do lists, daydreaming, counting clouds, digging into soil, comforting my two little ones and collapsing into bed after a long day. If it were up to me, each day would have a few extra hours... I wonder if that would be enough.

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