DIY Pirate Ship

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This post is sponsored by Safari Ltd, I received these pirates for free to play with, all opinions are my own.

My just turned 5 year old discovered the movie Treasure Planet the other day and was fascinated! Then there is the new Tinkerbell fairy pirate movie as well that we watch together.

All around he wanted some pirates to play with! Safari Ltd’s package arrived just in time with among other things a toob of pirates!

Now I am not one to just go out and buy a toy on a whim and the toy store is a 40 min drive away in the city too. So whats a Mom to do? Make one!

Making things with the kids is just as fun playing with them!

I had a look around the internet and settled on Red Ted Art‘s model and way of making a cardboard pirate ship. She even has a printable design you can use to cut your cardboard out.

We kind of eye balled ours from her template and got Daddy involved in cutting the cardboard shapes and creating of the raw ship.

We used a bit of tape to hold everything together and used the suggested paper meche method. (ours was paper from a junk mail catalog) This held up very nicely. Once the boat was dry we painted!

The pirate ship got 2 coats of paint as I was not happy with the first grey coloring. We used a small block of paper and drew a skull and cross bow on it for the sail.

The kebab stick I used for a sail mast had to be hot glued down.

Then it was playtime! The pirates looked fabulous on the pirate ship and with the few accessories such as a cannon and barrel it made the pirate ship very much realistic.

My 5 year old then decided he needed treasure and got a box to pretend with. Imaginative play is always so much fun.

I love Safari Ltd’s toobs, the figures are always well made, with gorgeous colors and they are solid. These are especially great with my 3 year old who can break inferior plastic animals in one afternoon!

I would love to hear about your child’s pirate adventures!

Have fun playing pirates!!

ARGH! There be treasure here!