We made a treasure chest and coins, a map, a telescope, cutlass and hook and some yummy pirate cakes. I'll try and run through how we made each one..
For the cutlass and hook, these were quite straightforward - the shapes were cut from cardboard (two of each) the 'blades' covered in tin foil, and then the two sides stuck together. I guess if you had some very strong card you would only need to cut one of each, but I wanted them to be able to withstand a bit of 'use'. Embarrassing for a pirate to have his sword break in battle..!
For the cutlass and hook, these were quite straightforward - the shapes were cut from cardboard (two of each) the 'blades' covered in tin foil, and then the two sides stuck together. I guess if you had some very strong card you would only need to cut one of each, but I wanted them to be able to withstand a bit of 'use'. Embarrassing for a pirate to have his sword break in battle..!
The handles were painted brown and then decorated using some shiny craft bits I had for jewels.
The telescope is simply three toilet rolls. Each one made slightly smaller by cutting up one side and then glueing back together to make a slimmer tube, that way they all fit inside each other and you have a telescopic effect. These were all painted brown (we had a vat load of brown paint for these crafts!) and decorated with a few stickers.
On to the treasure chest. For this we used an old shoe box, some card, tissue paper, brown paint (surprise), gold card, tape and glue.
First, for the top of the chest we added some cardboard to make the arch shape on the top of the chest, and stuck with tape. Then we stuck one long edge of lid to the bottom of the shoe box to make a 'hinge'.
Next we ripped a load of tissue paper up and stuck it all over the box - honestly, I didn't get what this part was all about when I was reading on how to make these, but seeing the finished thing I can see how it adds a lot more texture.
Once the glue was dry, we painted the whole thing in brown paint. This picture shows how it looks covered in tissue paper.
We used some gold card to make some straps to go over the top of the chest and some stickers I had lying about to make a lock at the front, and for decoration.
This is it looking a bit sad in brown paint, along with the cutlass and hook
And then the finished treasure chest, with a few silver coins - which are basically bits of card with kitchen foil wrapped around them, although we did use blunt pencils to write various numbers on them to denote currency.
Last but not least the treasure map - every good pirate needs one! We've made treasure maps before, but this time I thought we could try 'ageing' some paper first before we drew them. Easy enough to do; first take some white paper and tear around the edges, tightly crumple up and then open out flat again. Pour some cold strong tea into a nice big container (out comes our old friend the pet litter tray) and soak for about an hour. Lift out the paper and lay on some cling wrap, and before it dries add a few grains of instant coffee in places - the coffee gives the paper a slight burnt looking effect.
At this stage I am very conscious that the photo looks like we have just squashed some naan bread - but stick with it because it is a really nice effect.
When it dries we simply added all the details, like a compass, an island or two and most importantly where the treasure is buried.... It's hard to see all the detail in the picture as we used colouring pencils rather than pens.
Oops and I forgot to take a picture of the finished cakes... trust me they look yummy :)
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