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Simple craft ideas for the pirate camp or festival

Craft ideas for the pirate camp or festival

All real pirates have a hook, a pirate’s hat or bandana and a pirate’s shirt. Some pirates also wore an eye patch or had a wooden leg. Each pirate crew had a pirate’s flag and each ship had a telescope and a treasure chest for plundered treasure and, and….

A hook or a dagger, a pirate’s hat or a bandana and a pirate’s shirt are easy to make and a must for every pirate. There will even be enough time left over to make even more pirate items. You will probably not manage all of the craft ideas in the given time!

  1. Pirate shirt

    You will need an old t-shirt (single colour or two coloured stripes), or an old white shirt which can be cut up. The old white shirt is cut (shortened), the old t-shirt as well. A few holes make the pirate shirt look like the pirate has been in a hard fight.

  2. Belly sash

    A colourful sash made from a cut-off piece of material can be tied around the pirate shirt. This can be very bright and a shiny satin material. The pirate can stick his knife or hook into the sash.

  3. Pirate hat

    We can make a pirate's hat from strong sturdy black cardboard. Glued or tacked together and using an elastic band, the hat is quickly made. A pirate's hat can even be made from folded newspapers. Each child can then paint their own skull and crossbones on the hat. The hat is more chic if felt is glued to the black cardboard hat. This does, however, require a bit of skill and might to be difficult for the kids. A skull and crossbones is then cut out of white felt and glued onto the hat.

  1. Pirate bandana

    A simple bandana is simply tied around the head. This is always an emergency solution; therefore always keep a few pieces of material at hand.

  2. Cutlass, sword, dagger or sabre

    A hook, dagger or sabre is quickly made from an approx. 10-15mm thick piece of wood or board. With the help of a stencil, the edges are drawn in and cut out with a jigsaw, fretsaw or decoupage saw. The final shape is smoothed off with sand paper. A dagger can be made from a 2cm wide piece of wicker. A piece of cardboard with a hole in the middle can be used as the hand protector. Less work but less stylish and realistic is to make the weapons from very strong cardboard. This might be more suitable for small children to make themselves.

  3. Eye patch

    An eye patch can be cut to shape from rubber (or black cardboard). The shape should be slightly oval shaped circle. The eye patch is pulled over the head and secured in place a piece of elastic.

  4. Pirate flag

    Pirate flag

    A flag is to be cut out from an old (ideally) black sheet. Using white good quality fabric paint, skull and crossbones is painted onto the cloth or is cut from white felt and glued or sewn on. If you only have a white sheet, you can paint the outsides black leaving the white skull and crossbones in the middle.

  5. Telescope

    A telescope can be made from an old kitchen roll or a poster roll. Stuck with black paper and painted accordingly, the telescope is quickly ready to use.

  6. Wooden leg

    A wooden leg is made from cardboard. The cardboard is wrapped around the leg and held in position with brown tape. The fixing should not be too tight as some of the games cannot be played so well with such a handicap.

  7. Face paint

    You can apply a beard, scars and blood with face paints.

  8. Treasure map

    To make a treasure map, you can use parchment paper, a handkerchief or an old piece of leather. To colour the map, black tea or coffee works best. Once dried the map will look yellow. The (parchment) paper can then be light ripped at the edges.

    Drawing a treasure map is an affair full of fantasy. Secret markings, entries, codes, terrain features etc. can be marked on the map with ink or even in invisible ink. A treasure map can be made up of several pieces. Only when all pieces are put together can the secretive codes be correctly understood and worked out which leads to the treasure.

  9. Treasure box

    A shoe box or a small wooden box is decorated and painted. Gold foil is laid inside the box.

  10. Leather bag

    A pouch for your personal treasure and booty can be made from leather. A circle with a diameter of 25cm is drawn onto a piece of leather and is cut out. At a distance of approx. 0, 5-1cm from the edge, little holes are punched into the leather circle using punch pliers all the way around approx 3cm apart. A piece of string, or even better, a leather lace is threaded through the holes. The leather bag is finished.

  11. Gold nuggets

    We can make gold coins or nuggets ourselves. Each pirate looks for some small round pebbles. These are then painted with gold paint or spray painted. You can also buy chocolate coins in the stores.

  12. Stencil for a skull

    Everyone can draw a skull, but it is quicker to draw using a stencil. Simply download a skull logo (right mouse click - picture "save under"), then print it out, use a copying machine to enlarge it to the correct size and use it to trace.

  13. Galleon/pirate’s ship building instructions

    Building a simple pirate’s ship or a galleon as a model can be very time consuming. The hull is made from some sawn out pieces of plywood. It is made from a middle hull and a right and left hull. The single pieces of plywood for the hull are then glued together. Then the hull is rounded into shape with a wood file and sandpaper, so that the crossover sections are fully smoothed. Both hulls are then stuck to the keel. Extra pieces of plywood must be sawn to shape for the stern and the bow, stuck together and sanded into shape and then glued to the hull. Now only the sails, masts and rigging are missing. Thin pieces of round wood, kebab sticks and toothpicks can be used for the masts and material or paper can be used for the sails. Depending on the level of detail required, you can also glue/draw on a crow’s nest, rails or hatches.

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