How to | Fold a Paper Boat

Set sail on a local pond or even a puddle with these easy instructions

This paper boat technique is a bit of a classic but we’ve used step-by-step instructions from instructables.com where you can find pictures to help, if you like.

You will need: A piece of A4 paper. A paper folding tool for making your creases nice and crisp is useful but a ruler will do just as well.

1. Put your A4 paper in front of you, portrait style and fold up from the top to the bottom to fold it in half, leaving the ‘open’ end facing you.

2. Fold each top corner down diagonally to make the sails. 

3. Take the flap at the bottom of the paper and fold it up against the bottom of the 2 folded triangles. Take the corners of the rectangle that are sticking out over the triangle and wrap these parts of the paper around the edges of the triangle. Crease them so that they stay wrapped around the edge of the triangle.Flip the paper over and repeat Steps 1 and 2.

4. Pick up the triangle, then use your fingers to open up the bottom of the triangle. Pull the paper apart gently until it pops into a square shape. Make sure the bottom corners of the triangle fold over each other and become the bottom corner of a diamond.

5. Arrange your paper so that the bottom points of the diamond can fold upward. Fold up 1 corner, aligning it with the top corner. Then, flip the paper over and do the same thing to the other side.

6. As before, pick up the triangle, then open up the bottom of your new triangle with your fingers. Crease the paper along its edges so that it stays in a square shape.

7. Pull out the triangles to release your boat. Start at the top of the diamond and gently pull the two sides apart so that the seam running down the middle of the diamond expands. Crease the bottom of the folded-out sides to make the boat a bit stronger.

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How To | Launch Your Own Tiny Magazine

If you’ve ever flicked through a copy of The Simple Things and thought that we must have a lot of fun making an independent magazine, you’d be absolutely right. Here’s how you can have a slice of the fun yourself by creating a ‘mini’ magazine of your very own.

A ‘zine’ (pronounced ‘zeen’) is a magazine in a very small format that you can unfold to photocopy and then distribute within your community, whether that’s your church, school or a gang of your friends. They began back in the 1930s when people produced their own science fiction fanzines (or ‘zines’, for short) to share with other fans. They’ve had many resurgences over the years, with political zines being published in the 1960s and cultural ones during the punk era of the 80s. Whatever your interest, there will have been a zine for it at some point and if not - you can make your own! Here’s how:

1. Decide on a theme for your zine. It could be for a local community group, it could be self-published poetry, or just something very niche… recipes for brownies? Portraits of your neighbourhood’s cats? An illustration of the life cycle of a hawk moth? It’s all up to you. You’ll want to give it a name, too.

2. Decide whether you need to assemble a team of mates to help or if this is a solo project, and then get people on board or simply stock up on coffee and good biscuits before going it alone. 

3. Make your original zine. There are several formats you can use but the easiest is the eight-page zine. You can search instructions on how to do the folds for an eight-page zine online. There are several on YouTube or try ‘How To Make a Zine’ on Mymodernet.com. Make the folds first and number the pages, then you can flatten it out again to write or draw on each page. You will need to make one snip between pages 3 and 8 or 4 and 7. 

4. Design your cover on page one and your back cover on page eight, then fill the remaining pages with your content. Don’t forget you can stick in photos and blocks of text, use calligraphy or other images. It just needs to be clear enough to read when photocopied.

5. Unfold and flatten out your zine, photocopy as many copies as you need and then fold them all in the same way as you folded and snipped your original. 

6. Sell, give away or foist your indie zine upon friends, family and unsuspecting locals. 

If you’re already feeling inspired, don’t miss our My Living feature in the September issue, which is all about producers of indie mags. And if you’re looking for more indie mags to read yourself, you can always find plenty of them on our sister site Pics & Ink where you can buy mags on every subject imaginable, from adventure and travel to food and drink to film and music. Head to picsandink.com to have a browse.

More from our September issue…

More things to make with paper…

Make | Painted Paper Stars

A great way to reuse wrapping or parcel paper that maybe isn’t in the best condition. Painting the paper makes them stand out, so choose any colours that take your fancy.

You will need:

Scissors
Recycled paper
Watercolour paints
Sponge
Needle and thread
Glue stick

How to make

1 Cut a strip of paper with a width around the size you’d like the decoration to be. Make the length 2–3 times as long as the width.

2 Paint the paper with watercolours using a sponge. Pick two or three shades and create an abstract pattern – it doesn’t matter if it’s messy as the folds will hide any imperfections. Allow to dry.

3 At one end, fold over a strip around 2cm wide. Turn the paper and fold again, creating a concertina effect. (A bit of advice for making a concertina is to double the length of the first fold, then fold it back towards you halfway.)

4 Fold the paper in half and cut the unfolded edge to a point.

5 Using a needle and thread, sew the middle fold together and secure. Then glue the ends together, open out the star and glue the two other two ends.

6 Sew a second piece of thread and tie in a knot to create a loop to hang the decoration wherever you like – on the tree or in a window works well.

From Festive by Francesca Stone (Pop Press). Photography: Francesca Stone

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More Festive Things to Make…

Make: paper lily of the valley blooms

Pretty white paper flowers that are pretty simple to shape

 You will need:

Template (click to print out the PDF from our blog)

Crepe paper in different shades of cream and white

Thin wire

Green floral tape

Green paper

Small sharp scissors

1 Cut crepe paper in the shape of the template.

2 Roll it, using a finger to roll the paper around into the shape of a bell, twist the paper at the top and wrap a piece of wire around it to give it a stem.

3 Make 5 or 6 bells before you attach them all to one long piece of wire, one after the other. Wrap floral tape around the wire.

4 Cut leaves out of green paper and attach them to the wire, then once again cover the wire with the floral tape.

5 Keep on going until you have a whole bouquet.

Adapted from Paper Poetry by Helene and Simone Bendix (Kyle Books). Photography: Ben Nason.

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