Canals were used to be like today’s roads. Men, good, cattles, everything used to be transported by canals at olden times. Today, Venice holds on to the life of canals. Now a day, barges are uses for recreation purpose, or in some cases, for living. Here, we bring in a fantastic craft of making a canal boat, or a barge, for yourself. You can even use it to hold secret messages, as in Easter treasure hunt.

You will need the following items:

1) A tall cartoon, of milk or juice, that has a pointed end. The bigger the cartoon, the better.
2) Some pegs, the regular, cloth hanging ones.
3) A piece of cork, can be easily sourced from any empty wine bottle.
4) A plastic cap of a bottle.
You will also need scissors, a ruler, black emulsion paint, white emulsion paint, pencil, red acrylic paint, paintbrushes, PVA glue, ½ inch wide white paper strips, some pens and some acrylic varnish.

Procedure:-

1) Cut the cartoon in half laterally. One part will serve as the floor of the barge, while the other part will become its roof. To make the roof, cut off the ends of the roof part, and leave just the rectangle.

2) Now we will make the roof. Measure ½ inch from either side of the rectangle, and draw a straight line with the pencil and ruler. We will need to fold along these lines. Fold and keep aside.

3) Paint the outside and inside of the other part, which is the actual boat, black. Paint the roof white first, and then let dry. Then paint it red. You will get a bright red roof. Dry thoroughly.

4) Now glue the lower part of the folded surface of the roof into the main boat’s inner side. Use the pegs to hold on, until it sticks securely.

5) Now get adult help to cut the cork in two halves sideways. Paint them black and dry. Now glue one part to the top of the roof as given in the picture, and one at the rear of the boat. Also glue the plastic cap onto the roof, standing for the chimney.

6) Decorate the paper strips to your imagination. Stick them along the lips of the boat as given in the picture. Use PVA glue. If you want to make your boat sail-worthy, that is, if you want to put it in water, then just apply acrylic varnish to the entire lower surgace of the boat for protection.

Yahoo! Your boat is ready!

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