Aged History Journal

Remember where I talked about “If You Give a Homeschool Mom and Idea,” and many of you asked if I ever did the project?

Well, more than a month later it’s finally finished.  This is why I rarely do multi-step projects where you have to wait longer than say….. 5 minutes before doing the next step.  I forget to do the next step.  Sad, but true.

Supplies: canvas, ribbon, a pot of strong tea or coffee, typing paper, casserole dish

1.  Crumple up some paper.  Then flatten it out and dip it in the tea or coffee.  Leave it there for about 30 seconds or so.  I think the longer you leave it the darker it gets.  But, I couldn’t get the kids to leave it long enough to test.

2.  Repeat this over and over and over again.  After each page is completed lay them out to dry.  If you can lay them out in the Texas heat they dry in less than 5 minutes.

But, there’s also a very good chance the wind will blow them away…….

Then you get some exercise as you chase the papers all around the yard.

3.  Cut a piece of canvas roughly 9”x12.”  Cut a ribbon about 2 feet long.  Put the ribbon down first, lay the canvas on top of that, and finally lay your papers for you book on top of that.  Then draw your sewing line.  I just measured half of the paper and drew a quick line with sewing chalk.

4.  Now run it through your sewing machine with the biggest stitch your machine will do (just so that you don’t end up tearing the paper).  I backstitched at the beginning and end, but you don’t have to.

You could do this by hand, but have you ever sewn through paper?  It hurts, and is ridiculously hard.

Now in theory you could use this to write a first-person point of view journal.  But, not my kids.  No, they immediately seized them and started writing ghost stories.  Princess started drawing large numbers of Princesses and ponies.