Build a Moana raft

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The Cornelious family is flexing its creative muscles during our quarantine. My big girl Joya is crafty and I know she is getting bored with creating the same crafts with the limited of supplies in our home. I visited my local Dollar Tree to pick up some essential food items like candy, smore kits, popcorn, chips-you know, survival items with two kids and a Dad quarantined in the house. While I was there, I browsed a little to see if there was anything that would pique Joya’s interest. Walking down the aisle I see construction paper, nope, glitter, nope, rocks, nope. As I started to give up hope, I saw these cute little Disney characters in the toy section and I am instantly sure we can figure something out with them. Then I see popsicle sticks and it hit me. We can build mini rafts. I grabbed a few more characters and some small wood dowels and headed home. The only other items I needed were wine corks and material for a sail. As I was gathering up everything another idea hit me-I should make the sail a Moana sail!  Our craft project now has a name, “The random Disney character Moana raft”, catchy huh? Would you like to make one too? Here are the items you will need:

moana14.jpg

  1. Small Disney characters from Dollar Tree or your local store.

  2. Popsicle sticks

  3. Small wood dowels

  4. Wine corks

  5. Printable sail. I created a printable sheet that you can get here for free.

  6. Glue gun

  7. Scissors

  8. Laminator or packing tape

 

Step 1.
Choose four wine corks. Try to pick some consistent in size so it can be level when on a flat surface. Hot glue two together to help keep them straight when gluing the popsicle sticks.

 Step 2. 
Start gluing the popsicle sticks on. How many you will need will depend on the size of the sticks. With the smaller ones that are pictured, we used around 8 to 10.

Step 3.
Choose your character and glue them in the center. It will help with keeping the raft balanced. 

Step 4.
Cut out your printed sail and laminate it. This helps it keep it sturdy and makes it water resistant. If you do not have a laminator, packing tape works. Just take a few strips, sandwich the cut out with the tape, and cut it to size. Also be sure to keep a border around your laminate because if you cut along the paper sail edges, the lamination can start to come apart.

Step 5.
Glue your sail to your dowel.

 Step 6.
Glue your dowel to your characters.

That is it!  It was a fun project. When it rains on our street a nice little stream of water flows down to the corner. The girls tested their rafts with much success. Another tip is these can be great Fish Extender or Pixie Dust gifts for a beach day at Castaway Cay. To make it easy to pack, instead of gluing the character, use velcro on the raft and the characters feet. Dollar Tree also sells Velcro, one stop shopping!  Their’s is a peel and stick and is not that strong but with a little extra glue it worked fine. When the receiver gets this awesome gift, it can be attached on with ease.