How to Make a Boat With a Plastic Box

This recycled rainy day project will keep your budding buccaneer busy for hours. Set sail with a recycled plastic boat, using a variety of common household items and an old pencil box (perhaps last year's box with broken hinges). With a little imagination and a drop of bubble bath, you'll have a fleet of homemade boats setting sail in stormy bath waters in no time.

Things You'll Need

• Plastic pencil box
• Plastic milk jug
• Scissors
• Hot glue gun
• Plastic straw
• Permanent markers

Instructions

1. Cut the plastic box exactly in half lengthwise by slicing through the plastic hinges with a pair of sharp scissors.

2. Cut a 4-inch by 8-inch strip of plastic from the milk jug. Tightly roll this strip (rolling the longest side under). This will create the main mast for your sails.

3. Cut a 6-inch x 6-inch sail from your milk jug. Cut two holes in the center of the sail for the straw to thread through. The holes should be 1 inch from the left and 1 inch from the right, along a horizontal line 1/3 down from the top of the sail.

4. Thread the straw through the mast.

5. Glue the straw 1/3 of the way down the mast, to create a crosspiece. The straw should be centered in the mast.

6. Glue the mast to the bottom of the boat.

Tips & Warnings

• Glue bottle caps or other kitchen discards onto your boat to decorate it.

• Don't use regular felt tip pens for this project; the ink will smear on the plastic when it gets wet.

References

• Life Hackery: 14 neat uses for milk jugs