Cross bow craft

This has turned out better than i thought, has taken me a good few hours to make but was good fun and although i took lots of pictures whilst going along the steps were fairly simple, you could make this in a few hours i reckon although it took me more as i had to do this in-between work the kids, hope you enjoy going through this. I will be happy to answer any questions you may have about this craft

Estimated time 10 hours
cost estimated £10.00

Parts required

Crossbow cardboard, glue gun, glue, duct tape assorted (black, camouflage, brown, orange), 3 garden canes 1 bbq wooden skewers, 2 lolly pop sticks (drawing pins optional)
Crossbow bag cardboard staples Duct tape assorted colours key ring split rings (handles optional) small piece clear plastic
Crossbow arrows made from garden canes and duct tape with foam earplugs as the points
Targets Cardboard and duct tape assorted colours I used popsicle sticks for the legs

I had planned to add other parts to the bag, but i have ran out of time i was going to do a large pocket on the back of the back for other targets and a target wall that folds out and stands up. I also was going to put shoulder straps at the top so it could be carried on your back I have started these and if time will post up the pictures and instructions to this

Step 1: Step 1 the Body of the Crossbow

first of all draw a paper template of the outline of a Crossbow shape, it does not have to be perfect, just a basic shape I did this with a ruler and pencil to make a stencil
Using your stencil cut out 6 crossbow shapes to make the main body of your crossbow
get 2 lolly sticks and glue them together using your glue gun and decide roughly where the trigger should go on your crossbow
Line up the first two pieces of cardboard on top of each other, do not worry if they are not a perfect fit we can deal with that later by trimming the edges
Place the lolly stick roughly where the trigger should go and draw 2 lines where the trigger will move backwards and forwards, now using a drill bit pilot a small hole in the lolly sticks and push the skewer through the hole and mark where the hole will be by piercing the card with the skewernow cut your next piece of card taking out the piece where your trigger will go see pictures
once you have pierced one of the card sheets put all the others underneath and just hold them together with a piece of tape and pierce all the gun shapes with the skewer and take the pieces apart
re build the two pieces and put you gun shape that is cut out on top of these to create your space for the trigger
carefully place the other two pieces of card on top and run the skewer through the card and lolly stick secure all 5 piece of card with a piece of duct tape or puta spot of hot glue on each piece to stick them together
Now start to trim and tidy the edges and using strips of card cut them to size around the shape of the crossbow, again spot them with glue or tape them down trim the skewer and cover each end so that it cannot slide out
the basic shape is finished it is strong and light and ready to go

Step 2: Main Body Crossbow Continued the Bow

11. To create the crossbow I used 3 garden canes as the flex I bound them together with camouflage duct tape at each end and found the centre of the canes 25 cm and made a pencil made where each edge is so that you can centre the canes.
12. I then used a drill bit by hand and pushed a hole through the card for the canes to go through and lined up my pencil marks to get the canes in the centre
13. the next step is to place a securing strap on the front of the bow, I cut a strip of card about 6” long and 1” wide and covered this in duct tape and secured it at each end and in the middle to give the bow extra strength I also ran a piece of tape around each of the two sides to stop it from slipping out

Step 3: Main Body Crossbow Decoration

14. The next few steps are decoration I used a tube and covered this in duct tape and stuck it to the card towards the front of the crossbow. I then started to decorate the crossbow butt with duct tape which also holds all the card together securely making the bow really strong and used some drawing pins glued in to create the effect of screws in the Butt I did the same in other areas. I also used Black duct tape around the body and on the magazine handle and stuck some small lolly sticks on the magazine for effect the Bow is now taking place

I am gonna have a rest from this and start work on the Carrying bag!

Step 4: Crossbow Carry Bag Part 1 the Shell

3. Making the carrying bag was a trial and error affair I firstly used a Tupperware tub to draw around for the base and the lid to get a desired size ( I later replaced the lid as it did not work) and cut some lengths of card 1” wide to make a frame for a bag I used the crossbow to ensure the sizes were big enough (see pics) for the bow to fit in over the crossbow butt and along the length of the crossbow leaving space for the bow to stick out at the top
4. the frame was built and very flimsy at first I stapled the card together then covered the frame with black duct tape to give it strength and stability
5. I next had to make a sheet of fabric out of duct tape I carefully laid some white duct tape sticky side up and overlapped it with black tape sticky side down, carefully laying the tape down to try and minimise creases and bubbles in the tape. I did this until I had a big enough piece ( about 8-10 strips of each (see pic)
6. I now tidied up my duct tape fabric placing a strip of camouflage tape at each edge to the size needed, then I cut all the loose edges with a trimming knife on a board until it was neat and tidy
7. I placed the frame for the bag at the far end and stuck it to the frame I rolled the frame towards me taping the fabric to the frame until I had covered the frame. I then trimmed the fabric to fit the frame and placed a piece of camouflage tape around each end and two strips up each side to start off with so that it was ready to dress I tried the bow in the bag to see if it fitted before doing anything else and then started to work on decorating the bag and doing the lid

Step 5: Crossbow Carrying Bag Handle

8. The bag handle, I started with a piece of duct tape and placed it on the desk sticky side up then placed 2 pieces of everyday string at one third and two thirds O folded the duct tape over onto thirds so that the string ran along the inside of the tape at each edge giving it strength. I then folded in each side and pushed a key ring split ring through each end and tied the string in the middle. I then wrapped around duct tape to create a handle and fixed it to the bag by cutting 2 holes in the bag and taped them secure on the inside. Using paper fasteners I further secured the handle to make it really strong

Step 6: Crossbow Carrying Bag Pocket

9. the pocket for credit card and scoring pad and pencil I created a shape of a pocket using duct tape to create a pocket I edged it in a different colour I used plastic for a window and stuck each of the three edges to create a pocket. The whole piece was attached to the bag in 4 places using slits and by creating tabs to push through the bag and secure inside with a piece of Duct tape. I then went around the outside of the pocket to secure it on the outside with some 1" tape

I created some tapes to hold the arrows by making 3 strips of duct tape the same way i did for the carrying handle I bunched the tape together by wrapping the tape part way around a pen to get the desired size for the top tape and secured it down each end by cutting a slit in the bag and taping the end from the inside

The other two strips to hold the arrows were made the same way and secured in the middle using a paper fasterner that was pushed through the body to hols the strip in place in the middle, i let the tape out a bit and then secured the ends the same way as the others

Step 7: Crossbow Bag Phone Pocket

I decided to make the crossbow bag really versatile and had loads of ideas for this i wanted a pocket for my mobile phone, something with a cover so that it would not get damadged/ wet

I created a piece of brown fabric using brown duct tape and on 3 sides folded the sides up about 3/4 " and folded the corners inward and secured them with tape. I then created a smaller patch of duct tape and fixed this to make a smaller pocket to hold the pocket falp in place

I place 2 tabs on each side and 1 on the underneath to use as securing straps, i placed thepocket in position and cut slits for the straps to go through then secured each one in turn with tape, i ran tape all around each side to tape the pocket to the bag and make it secure the same way that i did with the credit card pouch/pocket.

I then created a flap for the bag using black tape and decorated the edges with brown tape to give a milatary look and pushed a paper fastener through the peice to give the apearance of a button, this was taped from the outside and the inside to the bag to secure it well, the overall look turned out well

Finally to finish off this i carefull cut out a peace symbol using orange duct tape for decoration, it looks good, just took my time, drew it out then using a sharpe blade cuts out the shape and stuck it to the pocket

Step 8: Crossbow Bag Key Fob Attachment

To make this i took a piece of duct tape and laid it sticky side up, to add strentght i put some string inside the tape making it narrow near the middle, just in case the tape started to wear. i carefully folded in the edged and cut up to the string in the middle to fold the tape around the narrow piece

Once i had wrapped tape around it once i did it egain to tidy up the appearance and make it stronger. I pushed the clasp through to the narrow section then folded the strip in half leaving the narrow section exposed with the clip fastened to it, I then taped the two wider edges together to secure the clip

I cut a slit in the bag where i wanted the fob holder to go and threaded the strip into the inside of the bag and taped it down, i also secured it with 2 paper fasteners to secure it further............done

If I would have had time i would have made a large pocket on the back of the bag for carrying different types of targets and a folded target galley, but hey ran out of time. I was also going to make a lid for the bag with a drawstring fastening and a rucksack strap for carrying I just ran out of time i will maybe add this in at a later date

Next job some targets

Step 9: Croosbow Targets

An optional step up to you but just finishes off the project in my opinion

I used lolly sticks some card, Duct tape in red, silver, black and a paper fastener for the centre

you could write in marker pen 10, 20 50 for centre to put a value score on them i just made one for now but have plans to make a few and also a target gallery to fit in the bag

Really easy step, cut out some card to the desired circle size i made this one as big as i could to fit in the bag, i started with red tape covered the card then repeated the process with silver then black and fastend it together with a paper fastener

The lesge werestuck down with duct tape using lolly sticks, the larger stick i made a hinge out of tape and used some string to stop the leg coming out to far when the legs were taken apart worked really well

Step 10: Crossbow Finishing Touches and the Arrows!

Final touches to the crossbow, just decoration using Orange diuct tape i decorated the bow and attached some elastic to the trigger making it semi automatic so that it returns to the cocked state ready for reloading the string

The arrows and this is where Safety is really important I made this for my kids so i use dsome oam ear defenders for the tip some garden stakes for the shaft of the bows and duct tape for the filghts as shown n the pictures below

YOU SHOULD NEVER POINT THIS AT ANYONE or any LIVING creature and although the materials make the bows fairly safe to use it should only be used to fire at targets lets make this fun and not dangerous

This is one of the other reasons why i used orange tape on the crossbow it can clearly be seen that it is not a real weopon by all and it meant to be used in play

Step 11: The Finished Product! Well Virtually!

The main reason for doing this was the satisfaction, i am a cub scout leader and also teach maths and ICT but wanted to not only to enter this but to share some of my ideas, cardboard and duct tape is a great and cheap way of creating things and recycling used card. in my opinion it would make a great project for a child to do and with a bit of adult help using the tools required NEED TO BE CAREFUL WITH KNIVES or SCISSORS it can be quite easily done, or a great project for father and child bonding!

All that was left is to add some elastic or string to the bow and away you go!

You do not have to do all that is in here and i could have added loads more, i just run out of time!

Thanks for looking at my craft I might put it on ebay and see what it goes for, have fun and continue crafting

Enjoy the final Pics! and thanks..............