The Flying Cloud

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Getting Started

Always use your imagination and be creative when building this project or any others. It's your creation, so be inventive when looking for building supplies — you just may be surprised! When building your project, experiment with new and different ways of putting it together. The most important thing is to have fun!

Find these or similar supplies!

  • A plastic soda bottle
  • Skewers or wooden dowels (for the masts)
  • Paper
  • Masking tape
  • Glue
  • Popsicle sticks (for a stand)
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1. Lets get started!

Start out by deciding on how many masts your soda bottle ship will have. I ended up liking the way it looked with 3 masts. I then laid a piece of tape down to mark the mast locations. This will be removed later.

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2. Make holes for your masts!

This is definitely an adult step. I made little holes by spinning the tip of my x-acto blade into the soda bottle, basically drilling the holes out. Try not to make them any bigger than your masts.

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3. Attach your masts!

To keep your masts from flopping around you will want to glue the mast ends down to the inside of the soda bottle. I used my hot glue gun for this. Regular glue will work, you’ll just have to wait for it to dry. I put a drop of hot glue on a mast end, slid it down and glued it in place. Make sure to position them so they are nice and straight.

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4. Make your masts taller!

After attaching my masts I decided to make them taller. It’s your ship so see what you like. I taped on one tall center mast extension and two smaller outer mast extensions.

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5. Make your sails!

This is where you could get really creative. Maybe you want your sails to be all different colors. I drew a few designs, cut them out and held them in place. Then decided on the sleek, clean look. Carefully mark your design out on some paper, cut them out and punch a hole on the top and bottom of each sail. Now slide them onto your masts.

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6. Build a stand!

To display the Flying Cloud I made a simple stand using only six popcycle sticks and a few drops of glue. This is one of those parts where you could get real creative. How about using an egg carton to make your stand?

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7. Finished!

VOILA! The Flying Cloud is complete and ready to sail the seven seas! Have fun!

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