::pirate party invitations::

I had to experiment with these bad boys.  

All of them are printed on card stock from my super cheap home printer.  I made the font in a dark brown to try and add to the aged effect.  The pirate at the top was off a Google search for "free pirate clip art". 

The first try was cut out to be a map shape and then dipped in watered down food color mixed to be brown.  It turned out green and not wrinkled enough.

The second try was paper dipped in the food coloring and them wrinkled into a ball.  It came out so faded and over wrinkled that you could no longer read it.  And it was still green.

Lily likes to make herself tea so I made a batch and experimented with it.  It was too pink, not very brown.  By this point I had looked up online from Martha Stewart the idea of putting the mixture  into a spray bottle instead of dipping the paper.  I had also figured out by this point to spray the paper lightly.  Then wrinkle it into a ball - this made the paper easier to wrinkle but the print didn't fade.  But even with all this experimentation the color was still too pink.  

I didn't want to go to the store and buy a darker tea just for this.  I started digging through the cabinets looking for something brown that would work.  I came up with baking cocoa.  I wasn't sure it would work but I figured - why not?  I put one teaspoon for about 1.5-2 cups of water into a spray bottle.  It worked well.  

Here are my final directions -
Print invitation in brown ink on white card stock.  
Take one teaspoon powdered baking cocoa to about 2 cups of water.  Put in a spray bottle and mix very well.  
Spray the front of each invite lightly.  Make sure you cover it but don't soak it.  Rub it in with your hands.  Be careful on any place with black ink because the smear on them was more obvious.  
Turn the page over and lightly spray and smear the back.
Wad the page into a ball.
Smooth it out, able more spray if needed, and leave it to dry.  
When dry rip the invite roughly into a map like shape.  
Smooth out the paper like you would a dollar bill you are trying to get into a soda machine.  
Burn the edges.  
Show them to Max and have him add his name and use a pencil to poke a hole in each one.  He says its a cannon ball.  
Roll it into a map and tie it with the string of your choice.  I used yellow raffia because it was near by.