How to Make a Treasure Map for a Pirate Party
If you are hosting a pirate party for your child's birthday, entertain the guests with a swashbuckling treasure hunt that leads to a chest full of prizes such as chocolate gold coins, eye patches, plastic telescopes and stuffed animal parrots. Design an "authentic" pirate treasure map to help the buccaneers find their way through the house and yard to discover where you have hidden the riches. Incorporate stickers and pen drawings as whimsical clues for the pirates to follow. Does this Spark an idea?
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Things You'll Need
- Scissors
- Paper grocery bag
- Water
- Brown craft chalk
- Sponge-tip applicator
- Black marker
- Stickers or colored markers
- Black, red or gold ribbon
Instructions
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Use scissors to cut along a fold down the side of a brown paper grocery bag. Cut off the entire bottom portion of the bag to create a long piece of tan-colored paper.
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Grasp the paper with your thumb and index finger on each hand and carefully tear one inch off of all four sides to create a ragged, irregular edge.
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Sprinkle the paper with water to make it more pliable and carefully crumple it into a ball. Smooth the paper back out---it should now have an assortment of wrinkles and a texturized, leather-like feel. Let the paper dry.
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4
Give the treasure map an aged look by brushing brown craft chalk along the wrinkles and edges of the paper with a sponge-tip applicator.
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Make a small "x" on the upper-left corner of the paper to indicate the start of the treasure hunt and a large, bold "X" on the bottom-right corner to represent where you will hide the loot. Select notable landmarks along the path as kids' treasure-map clues, such as a living-room couch, a vase containing red roses, a sandbox or a bike positioned near a fence, for example.
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Apply stickers or use colored markers to draw pictures that represent the landmarks you have chosen. Add a sticker of a door to represent the front door, draw a bone to indicate a dog dish or a present to signify the gift table, for instance. Once you have filled in all of the clues to get the guests from the starting point to the treasure chest, use a black marker to draw dashes that connect one landmark to the next until you reach the "X" where the treasure chest rests.
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Roll up the handmade treasure map and tie the scroll with a piece of black, red or gold ribbon. Present it to the party's guest of honor to begin the treasure hunt.
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Tips & Warnings
When you don't have a paper grocery bag available, create the treasure map using a 12-by-12-inch piece of tan card stock or an 11-by-17-inch piece of brown construction paper. If you don't want to buy craft chalk to age the treasure map, you can still generate an antique look by using a paintbrush to apply a wash of weak tea or coffee along the surface of the paper. Flick some of the coffee or tea around the map to create assorted splotches.
