Cardboard Ship Wheel and Fake Portholes

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Hey everyone! I am excited to share with you a few fun crafts I constructed for my dad’s 60th birthday this past weekend! We surprised my father by hosting a murder mystery dinner. The murder mystery game took place on an early twentieth century ship, and as the hostess, I thought I should add a few theme-related decorations to my house for the party. These party decorations included a cardboard ship wheel and fake portholes. Honestly, they turned out better than I could’ve hoped! I enlisted help from my sister, Christy, to construct the cardboard pieces and then finished the craft on my own. These ideas would be PERFECT for a pirate or ocean themed birthday party for all ages, especially kids.

Fake Porthole Made From Cardboard

The first craft was creating fake portholes out of cardboard. To recreate this for your party, the supplies you will need are as follows:

• Cardboard box
• Utility knife
• Bottle caps
• Hot glue gun & glue
• Gold spray paint
• Wax paper
• Craft paint or construction paper

First we cut rings the approximate size of portholes (~15″ across) out of cardboard. We traced a bumbo as the big circle and a Christmas tin as the inner circle. Then we cut the cardboard with a box-cutter or utility knife.

Then I used my hot glue gun to glue plastic bottle caps on the cardboard rings as faux bolts.

The next step was to spray paint gold.

Then I cut wax paper to size and taped it to the back of the circle. This gives a faux glass look.

Make sure you spray paint before taping on the wax paper.

Then paint the back of the wax paper with thinned acrylic paint (just dilute with water) a scene of the ocean. All you really need is a horizon line and you could even tape construction paper behind the wax paper to work just as well.

As you can see, I also hung some rope up to add to the ship themed decor!

Construct a Cardboard Ship Wheel

I wanted a big sign displaying “Happy Birthday” for my dad, but I wasn’t sure how to give it that wow factor. I was inspired by this Pinterest pin to make a cardboard ship wheel and make that be the sign.

I found this wheel on instructables.com and they have a great tutorial there for their method as well.

Supplies needed to make a cardboard ship wheel:

• Cardboard (duh!)
• Utility Knife
• Duct tape
• Wood dowels for the rungs
• Hot glue gun and glue
• Brown & gold spray paint
• Paint pens

My sister Christy and I found the largest cardboard box we could and cut two circles out of it with a utility knife, front and back. Then we found some cardboard that was corrugated correctly so we could cut it into 4″ strips and duct tape it around the two cardboard circles. This created a 3D wheel.

It’s about 3.5 feet in diameter!

Once your wheel is constructed (make sure you have help, it usually takes four hands), you can add the wheel rungs. I used wood dowels I had laying around, but you could use lots of different things like chair spindles, slats, paint sticks, etc.

I used my duct tape to connect the dowels to be long enough to go through the cardboard inner and outer circles. This gave them strength and ensured the rungs lined up with each other on the handles and inside.

[Of course, you could just cut your dowels longer. I was using leftover wood so no cutting necessary, I had to work with what I had.]

Then I cut rectangles into the cardboard as holes for the dowels to go through. At first I cut an “X” shape thinking it would hold better, but that was a mistake. The cardboard just mushed and it was difficult. Don’t do “X’s” just make a hole the shape of your dowel. Cut one on the outer part of the wheel.

Then cut a hole for the dowel to come through on the inner part of the wheel.

Looking good…

Next it was time to spray paint. I used two different browns because I was using up leftover spray paint I got for free from my local HHW facility. I think this was actually a nice touch because it made the wheel look a little more like it was constructed out of wood.

For the middle of the wheel, I used a cardboard circle leftover from the fake portholes to cover up the ends of the dowels. I spray painted it gold and used hot glue to secure it on top of the dowels.

I also added hot glue to the dowels where they connect with the cardboard. This stabilized the wheel rungs so that I could lean the wheel up against a wall if I so pleased. Without the glue, the wood dowels could slide in and out of the cardboard.

Last, but not least, I used the paint pens in black and gold to write the big “Happy 60th Birthday” sign for my dad. I also colored in a black circle in the middle, just to give it more details.

It turned out really cool, didn’t it!?

It took me a total of about 8 hours to make and it was fun!

The decorations were a huge hit at the party. We all dressed up like our characters and everyone enjoyed the theme thoroughly, brought to life by the cardboard ship wheel and fake portholes I made.

Please pin and share this idea if you thought it was cool. Who knows the next time you’ll need to decorate your house like a ship, am I right?

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