*tutorial: birthday cryptograms*

 

hello friends! today i'm going to share a tutorial on how to make a fun and inexpensive birthday gift for your husband, child, friend, parent, nephew - really, anyone you think would find it enjoyable! i thought of this the other day while doing a cryptoquip/cryptogram and decided to do a more personal one for the husband's birthday. he loved figuring out all the fun activities we were going to do and it was fun for me to create the clues! win-win :)

you will need:
* about ten 3 x 5 cards (or any size really)
* a hole punch
* some twine
* colorful markers, crayons, or colored pencils
* a pen

step one:
take each card and hole punch them in the top left corner. this way, it will read like a book. you can even put two or three holes down the side.

step two:
create a fun "title page." i did this kind of last minute so i just used colored pencils. but you could print something off or take a fun picture. whatever your heart desires!

step three:
on a separate sheet of paper, write down the activities ahead of time so you can plan your day. for ours, there was a card for breakfast, opening presents, going fishing, eating cake, going for a plane ride, eating his favorite dinner, and an "i love you message" at the end. again, do whatever you want and be creative!

step four:
write the times you will be dong these activities on the front of the 3 x 5 cards.

step five:
on the back of each time card, write out the clues. i first wrote out the message on a separate sheet of paper and figured out my code. then i transferred my "new message" onto the card.

for example - your code could be as simple as:

a b c d e f g h i  j  k l m
|  |  |   |  |  | |  |  |  |   | |  |
n o p q r s t u v w x y z

so for each a in your message, you write an n. for each j, you write a w. and so on.
then give a clue at the bottom. i just went through the message and tried to figure out which one letter would be the most helpful. (but not too obvious!)
he caught on pretty quick :)

step six:
after creating all your clues, bind the book together with your twine.
and you're finished! 

if you have any questions or comments, please let me know!
* want to do a crytogram to get the idea? go here or look in the comic section of any newspaper... i'm pretty much addicted to them :)

linking up with: