Beach and Nautical Themed Miniature Projects

Use these miniature palm trees for tropical beach scenes. They are easily made from painted paper, and wire, or fabric leaves. You can build them to a range of sizes and scales and they work equally well for cake decorations, desert gaming terrains or nativity scenes, depending on which size you make them. If you need a particular type of palm tree, just pay attention to the style of the fronds, and the way the fronds are arranged.

I love the effect of miniature driftwood which you can get from using reindeer moss or Spanish moss. Lots of tiny vines and twigs will give you a similar effect if you collect them and dry them carefully. These wreaths can be left 'natural' or decorated with small scale shells and nautical charms, or bits of jute 'rope'.

Tie an Ocean Plait Rug from a length of string or decorative cord for a miniature rug, or use regular rope, or a retired climbing rope to tie a rug in full size as a welcome mat for your home. The step by step photo instructions make this an easy project, regardless of what size you want your rug to be.

Try tying a few of these using different weights of rope and cord. The knot can be used to make placemats or coasters as well as rugs.

These sailboats can be made in a range of scales and are easy to make with paper or fabric sails and simply carved hulls. If you don't want to make them from carved craft wood, shape the hulls from floral arrangement foam, and give them a good protective coating of paint.

These bright pillows are based on standard nautical signal flags. Their simple bold designs can be used in a cottage or on a boat, in full size or miniature scale. A list of the flag meanings is included in the instructions, in case you want to spell something out in particular for someone who knows their flags!

In miniature, the signal flags are made from bias binding tape. In full scale, you can make the patterns using cotton quilting fabric.

Made from air dry or polymer clay, these seagulls are easy to sculpt to add to a miniature scene. You can perch them on pilings, rocks or add them to the roof of a house or boat.

Seagulls are an easy shape to sculpt, even in the small scales used for dollhouse displays. This is a good bird to practise with, and an easy project if you make it with air dry clay. Once you work out how to make them, you can make them larger for home decor, or make them out of fondant icing to add to summer cakes or cupcakes. The process of sculpting them remains the same, regardless of which material you use.

Add to the sense of summer in your miniature scene with these miniature beach hut or life buoy photo or mirror frames. Made from printables, you can use them to frame miniature versions of your summer holiday photos for a scale scene, or to paste on a scrapbook page.

Make a flashing or steady beam working miniature lighthouse lamp for a scale scene. These lamps are easy to make using LED bulbs and wooden beads, along with scraps of wood for the keeper's cottage. The lamps can be made to run off the transformer for a dolls house, or made from LED lamps that run from watch batteries so they can be set in roomboxes or other locations which aren't wired for power.

If you need a hat for a pirate, the standard felt tricorne is fairly easy to shape from a scrap of wool felt. Also worn by revolutionaries and naval officers, the tricorne can be made for men or women, in a range of colors. The one shown here is fairly standard, you can make more elaborate tricorne's with larger brims, or brighter trims.

This trunk is modelled on one owned by a sea captain in the late 1880's. The chest has a movable tray and can be used as a travelling trunk, captain's chest, or tack trunk.

Sea man's chests were rarely the round topped boxes seen in Hollywood movies. In tight quarters, everything must be made to do double duty, or at least stow away efficiently. Round topped chests were designed for coach travel, where their round top design prevented other chests from being stored above them.