Pirate Treasure Maps

I decided to attempt to make treasure maps for the goodie bags and although it was time consuming, I had a lot of fun and it was super easy.

First I started with a piece of 8-1/2x11 white card stock. I tore the edges off to make them look rough and crumpled the paper into tight balls a few times. I made a cup of tea and soaked 3 or 4 bags of black tea in it do that it was really dark and concentrated. I used the tea to stain the paper by painting it on. It took about 2 coats per size. A cookie sheet worked really well to paint on because I didn't have to worry about spilling or dripping anywhere. When I was done painting, I put each piece of wet paper on tinfoil lined cookie sheets to dry. I I had to do it again, I would use wax paper rather than tinfoil, because when they dried, they stuck to the foil and it was a bitch to peel up without ripping them. When I had all of them done, I set them on the porch to dry. One benefit to living in the dry desert- everything dried quickly.

After they were completely dry, I was left with a thick, leathery paper that turned out just perfect! It seems very durable and great for toddlers. :)

I'm no artist, so I just did my best at drawing a quick and easy map that I could replicate a handful of times and then I drew a dotted line leading to an "X", colored each one with colored pencils, rolled them up and tied them with some twine. Simple as that!

I think they turned out SO cute and have way more personality than a store bought map. Of course, in the hands of 3 year olds, they probably won't last long, but I knew that going into it. ;)

Pirate Treasure Maps: 5 hours and $0!
Remaining party budget: $74.