Minnesota Viking Ship

In 2013, they built their first cardboard ship for Mary Anne’s niece Maddison.

In Joe’s family, the siblings have a secret santa exchange of their own. In 2015, Mary Anne drew Melvin’s name, Joe’s eldest brother. Melvin and his wife Susan are Minnesota Vikings fans so Mary Anne decided to collect some cardboard and create a Viking ship. Inside the ship would be six gifts and each box would spell out a letter of his name. The limit for the gift exchange was $50 and last gift in the N box was going to be a vikings jersey. So the other gifts needed to be very inexpensive.

We started with cutting out 2 silhouettes for the main structure. The bottom needed to be as round as possible while still being able to sit upright. We cut long strips and slots across the bottom to insert them into and wove strips across the opposite way. We wrapped the structure using a paper mache technique, but with cardboard so it would be stronger.

Next, we needed a to add a few accessories so Mary Anne drew up the flag and painted it. Lastly, we cut out some circles to be shields and made some oars. We ran into trouble getting the mast to stay after he opened the gifts since it was just wedged between the gifts before he opened them.

On Christmas morning, Melvin a box with gold wrapping paper and a scroll. The ship was hiding in another room and by the time he finished reading it the boat was brought around.