Craft Corner - How to make a *real* Pirates Treasure Map

You might remember when I posted about my son's 1st birthday Pirate Party last time we had found a great AWESOME park to hold the party. The park has a huge pirate shipped shaped playground with slippery slides, swings, cargo nets and even a plank to walk!


So last weekend hubby and I took our two youngest to the park for a play while we 'scoped' it out to plan a treasure hunt for the kids at the party.
We wrote down a handful of landmarks the park has e.g. BBQ area and I took a few photos with my trusty iPhone. Once the kids were worn out from all the pirate ship playing we headed home and put them down for a snooze then we got to Treasure Map making!
The idea is that the kids at the party, who are aged between 5 and 1, will (with the help of hubby) use the Treasure Map to find 5 hidden keys around the park. Once all 5 are found they will come back to a chained and padlocked 'treasure chest' and try each key until the padlock is opened and the Treasure (birthday cake) is found!

My very clever husband had the fantastic idea of looking up the park on Google Maps (I love that man) so we had a birds eye view of the park's layout and were able to draw a first draft of the Treasure Map on paper.


Everyone knows a real Treasure Map is always printed on tattered and dirty fabric so I had a dig through my fabric stash and found a piece of this natural linen fabric. I know it looks too clean and crisp but just wait...
With the help of a black permanent marker I drew (please remember: I'm a sewer not a illustrator) the 5 landmarks from the park we decided the keys could be hidden at and gave them each a 'piratey' name e.g. the tree with two park benches under it we called Lone Pirate's Tree. I then used a red permanent marker I drew a X at each key hiding spot because, of course, "X marks the spot".
With the map all drawn it was time to make the fabric look like it had been dragged from port to port by plundering pirates. Firstly I put it through a wash cycle and hung it on the clothes line for 24hrs scrunched up. This made the marker fade a little and put some great creases in it as well as fraying the raw edges. I picked up a small pile of dirt in the map and rubbed it into a few spots. Next I placed a couple of wet tea bags in various spots on the map then gathered the fabric around them and tied it up with elastics to hold them in place. The map then hung on the clothesline for another 24hrs letting the tea stain the fabric.


To add the final and finishing touches hubby and I used a lighter to burn the edges of the map and a couple of holes in parts of the map that wouldn't be missed (be sure to do this outside and out of view of little peoples eyes so they don't attempt to 'copy')


I LOVE how the map turned out and think the kids, well the older kids, at the party will be so excited to be going on a real pirate treasure hunt!

Pirate Party Planning... Arrrrr!

In just a little over a month my youngest, Harrison, turns 1 (wow that year went fast!) and with Master Harris being the last of our little crew we have a good reason to go all out for his birthday!
When throwing around ideas a few months ago hubby suggested a pirate theme for the party. So every now and then I have been bookmarking pirate ideas on blogs, marking handmade pirate items on Etsy and Madeit and putting together some inspiration and ideas... these are a few things I had filed away:


So now with the craziness of Christmas and our little family holiday all over I have decided to go full swing into pirate party planning, Yay!
First things first is to find the invites right? Done. After one of my many Pirate Party searches on Etsy I found these very cute handmade invites by Traci from T and Little S Designs. With one quick convo to Traci we worked out some fun wording, in 'pirate talk' for the party details e.g. "Shiver me timbers Captain Harrison is turning one! Set sail if ye dare and drop ye anchor for a Pirate Party" - cool hey?


Once the invites were picked we now had a colour scheme too: Red, Black & White so I went shopping!!
From The Spotty Napkin: pirate candles, pirate balloons, pirate 'sprinkles' & eye patches. From Complete Party Boxes: red & white striped loot bags, red & white balloons, pirate party hats & lollies for the loot bags. From good old Ebay I found some cute novelty pirate themed toys for the loot bags like small plastic telescopes and also bought these very cool cookie cutters to make some fun party food.


I also found from Spotlight pirate serviettes and from the local supermarket I bought some faux pearl necklaces and a big bundle of gold and silver chocolate coins... every pirate needs their treasure! And of course I have bought some red, black and white fabrics to make some Giggleberry bunting for decorating!
I then headed to a great blog for party planning, The Celebration Shoppe, where I had bookmarked their awesome ideas and tips for putting together a swashbuckling party HERE. I had seen a link to a clip showing how to make a pirate flag HERE and loved how great it looked (and how easy it was) so last night I got creating and put one together... with a little extra personalization for the birthday boy. We haven't quite worked out where it will hang on the day. Harrison's high chair perhaps??


So where is this party all taking place? (this is one of the best parts). Thanks to my sister we have found a park that is about 15 minutes drive from our house that has the most PERFECT play areas possible for this party... you guessed it A PIRATE SHIP!! (sorry I yelled, I'm just so excited) seriously, how COOL is this set up?


The park also has undercover tables and chairs and BBQ's. That means no setting up and cleaning up my house for the party shenanigans!!
Wow - this is all looking rather impressive when I put it all in one place.

Our next job is to visit the wonderful pirate ship park and plan out a treasure hunt for the kids at the party to go on. Hubby has big plans for making a 'real' treasure map where he will take the kids on a pirate adventure to find the treasure (birthday cake), where X marks the spot.
I'll be sure to post more pirate party planning updates as we get closer to the fun day.