Directions:Mix together 4 TB baking soda and 4 TB water.
Dissolve baking soda in water in the cup.
Dip the cotton swab in the mixture and paint a design or message on the paper. (It will be invisible)
Wait for your artwork/message to dry.
Brush watercolor paint over the paper to reveal the message or art.
Ack, this didn't work! The messages were not invisible on the paper
and when we tried to paint over them, we could not see the messages. (So, the messages become secret after all!)
I wasn't about to give up on secret messages though. I went with the old standby: we wrote messages in white crayon on white paper and painted over those with watercolors. Worked like a charm.
After a while, I ran out of clever things to write and started writing C's first grade words for him to reveal. I never thought about this before, but it is a fun way to practice spelling words or sight words!!
18 comments:
oo to bad the first one didn't work! We love using a white crayon and painting to find hidden pictures and letters!
If you want to try again, try lemon juice, then hold to a light bulb without burning the paper.
Have fun...hope C feels better soon!
I was wondering when you did the first one, if you got the paper too wet with the solution? At least you saved the day with the white crayon. Hope C feels better soon!
@Debbie - I don't think the paper was too wet. My only thought was that maybe the baking soda didn't dissolve enough.
I love this....I often have things that I try and don't work...I'm glad to know others have the same thing! Great solution!
We tried to do the lemon juice and ironing secret messages and they were a total fail for us. =( Sometimes it just doesn't go the way we plan!
I recall writing in milk and revealing with lemon (I think) when I was a child. I have to look it up. I tried to do the white crayon once, and it didn't work for us! I think the cheap watercolors were too faint to reveal the message. I have to try again with better watercolors.
PS - I hope C feels better soon!
The lemon juice with a candle really does work - we did it maybe a year ago. I'm surprised the newsletter had an idea that didn't work! You're right that this is a great way to practice words!
I hope C feels better soon!
@Raising a Happy Child - We love Faber Castell watercolors!!!
Poor C! But at least your having some fun together. Great idea for sight word practice :)
This would be a fun way to practice site words! Hope C feels better. I think mine are all starting to get winter colds.
Markers also work. I'm sick right along with C. Hoping to finally kick it today
We had success with lemon secret messages
Bummer C is sick. I hope he is better.
I love the idea of practicing spelling words with this. What a great way to work on visual memroy practice!
I hope C is feeling better! We love to practice our sight words this way! For more sight word activities check out: http://givinguponacleanhouse.blogspot.com/search/label/sight%20words
Great idea for learning words. We tried the white crayons and water colors with the kids recently and it didn't work at all. I think they either used too much paint or didn't press hard enough with the crayon. It's always worth another try.
Thanks for posting a comment on my blog on the hot chocolate post.
We did that with my daughter's sight words a couple weeks back but I didn't post. She loved it. To make it even more secret we would scrunch up the paper after writing with crayon. It was really hard to decode without watercolor. I'm also thinking the technique would be useful to make a fun secret valentine!
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