How to Make a Pirate's Treasure Chest and Map

Ahoy mateys!  
What a fun time we had at the beach!
Let me show you how Black Shirt the Pirate (Hubby) and I made a treasure chest and map, as a fun indoor beach activity for our grandsons, ages three and six. 

Isn't old Black Shirt the scariest looking pirate you've ever seen? ;)
His eye patch, mustache and pirate bandana are from the party store.

OK, here's how we made the "treasure chest" :

The box is a men's shoe box that opens from the front. 
Hubby used duct tape to make the "straps". 
The black dots (rivets) were made with a permanent marker. 
The skull and crossbones graphic is from the internet...printed, cut out and attached with double sided tape.

The chest was filled with toys, activity books and markers...and of course, gold (chocolate) "dubloons".

To make the map...

...you need one large, brown paper grocery bag.

Open the bag down the back seam, tear off a section with no writing on it, and tear the shape of a "map".

Next, using permanent markers, draw your design on the paper map...

...a pirate ship...

...a compass rose, landmarks, and don't forget...X marks the spot.

Wait a couple of minutes for the marker to dry, then crunch the map, open, crunch again from a different angle, open, and crunch again.

I got so involved with crunching, that I forgot to take pics of the crunching part...but you get the idea.

Put the crunched map in a bowl of warm water for a couple of seconds, until it's wet. 
You might need to open it to make sure it's wet.

Lay the wet map out to dry on the counter, or blow dry it, if you're in a hurry. 
You're all done! 
Now...

...fold, or roll, and tie the map with an old leather shoe lace...or twine. 
Good luck to the little ones hunting for the hidden treasure and...

...and watch out for old Black Shirt.

xo Black Shirt and Babs

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