How To Write A Coded Message

I have long believed that to make life enjoyable, you must find small, fun, goofy things to do as much as possible. This includes writing fun notes for our loved ones, or for anyone, really! 

A coded message could be used to express simple words, like I love you, exciting ones like I'm pregnant or We're engaged, or even snarky ones like, If I have to tell you one more time to take out the trash, you're grounded for a month. You can use it for a birthday message, a love note, or anything else your imagination can dream up.

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To show you how to create a coded message, I'm going to use an example from the valentine that I sent my partner this year. 

How to Write a Coded Message

Step 1: Figure out what you want to say.

My message said: I love you more than words can say (that's why I had to use numbers).

Step 2: Write out numbers 1 through 9, then assign them each a letter.

I wrote all the vowels first, then chose 4 letters that showed up several times in the text. Once you've assigned each number to a letter, you're going to swap them out. Since vowels are usually the most common letters, I started with those, but you could be exact and choose the 9 most frequently-used letters if you prefer. 

Step 3: Figure out what the coded message will look like by switching each letter for its number.

I did this by writing out the message with heavy spacing, then putting the numbers in above each letter it would replace. 

Then, I added in the letters to get a preview of how it would read.

Step 4: Create a cute layout that explains the puzzle and gives them space to solve it.

I thought I was going to have more space than I did, so I added the message "Use Sheet Provided to Decode" at the bottom and continued onto page 2.

I made a box for each punctuation mark as well, to make it easier to read. In the end, I kind of liked that it was on two pages. I knew he could easily look from one to the other. Overall, it could have been organized better, but I was alright with end result. Besides, he understood it just fine and he had just as much fun decoding it as he would have if it were "perfect".

So there you have it! Creating your own coded message isn't that tricky! And it's so fun to have to figure out what it says - it takes a personal note one step further. Isn't it sweet? 

I would love to see what kind of messages and layouts you design using this tutorial. Tell me about them in the comments or find me on Pinterest to share your creations (you can add photos to the comment section underneath a pin). 

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