Pirate Party Invitations - - You Aaargh Invited!

If you take the time to search the internet and pinterest, you can find lots of free birthday invitations for just about any birthday party theme.

I found some very cute and free invitations for a Pirate Party on my search of the internet, but when I saw the message in a bottle invitation, I knew that's what I wanted to do for Shane's party.

I used my Microsoft Publisher program to make the invitations.  I found a faded out treasure map to use as the background of the invitations.  I also found several invitations on the internet using fun Pirate language in the invite and picked through the ones I found until I came up with a Pirate invitation that I liked.

I used the Blackadder ITC font for the invitations.  It really looks like a Pirate script.  I added some skull and bones clip art.   Here's what it looked like before I printed it.

I printed out the invitations on plain white copy paper.  I ripped the sides of the paper to give the invitation a rough, jagged edging.

I used a black ink pad from my scrapbooking supplies to darken the edges of the invitation and make it look aged.

I could have burned the edges with matches, but I thought using the black ink would be safer for me.  

I used a pencil as a guide for rolling the invitations up into slender tubes and tied them with jute twine.

Most of the message in a bottle invitations use glass bottles, but I didn't want to use glass bottles with 6 year olds.  I've been saving my plastic water bottles for this purpose.

Shane helped me put together his invitations.  First we used a funnel to put some sand in the bottles. . . certainly real messages in bottles have some sand in them . . .

It required some serious concentration.

Besides the sand, we also added some slivers of pirate gold a/k/a glitter to the bottles.

We figured a hint of gold would entice our friends to the party. 

Then we added the invitation to the bottle.

Aaargh Matey!  

Shane had a great time putting these invitations together for his friends.  My only suggestion - Make sure the sand is completely dry otherwise the invitations will be damp and the ink will fade where it gets wet.  Don't ask me how I know this.  :)  

The next step involved a little oven action.  Shane and I gathered up some of his broken and unloved crayons.  We peeled the paper off and put them in a silicone baking dish.

We set the oven for 200 degrees and let the crayons melt slowly in the oven.

We dipped the tops of the bottles into the melted crayon . . .

Then we used an initial embossing stamp to put the letter "F" in the melted crayon.  I had help from Captain America in completing this step.  :)

The tops turned out really cute.  Blue for boys . . .

Pink for girls . . .

I made some labels using Microsoft Publisher to put on the outside of the bottles . . . 

and some skull tags to tie around the tops along with a little burlap flourish.  :)

The end result of all of mine and Shane's hard work made me happy.

And although the invitations cost me a lot of time, they didn't cost me any money to make.  

I used all materials that I already had on hand . . . and I got to spend some quality time with my favorite pirate of all.

The invitations are done so now I'm committed to the party.  I just hope that once the party is over, I won't have to be committed!  

So much to do before the big day!  And lots of pirate adventures are still waiting for . . .

                           the Ferrell boys and me!


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