In a world where digital communication has become the norm, there’s something undeniably appealing about sending and receiving handwritten secret notes. Whether you’re sharing surprise love letters, trading secrets with friends, or devising a complex plot as part of a mystery game night, creating the perfect secret note is an art. Here are five creative ways to make your covert correspondence even more intriguing.

1. Invisible Ink

An age-old technique for hiding secret messages, invisible ink can easily be created using household items such as lemon juice, milk, or vinegar. To make your message disappear, dip a thin paintbrush or cotton swab in the chosen liquid and write on paper. Once the paper dries, your message will seemingly vanish. The recipient will need to know the secret technique for decoding the message—applying heat using a hairdryer or putting the paper above a lightbulb or under sunlight works great to reveal the hidden content.

2. Cryptograms

A cryptogram involves shifting the letters of your message by a certain number of positions within the alphabet to create an encoded note. For example, if you shift each letter two positions forward (so A becomes C and B becomes D), your message “secret” would read “ufigqw”. To decipher this cryptogram, your recipient will need to know the number of positions you used for the shift so they can reverse the process.

3. Pigpen Cipher

The pigpen cipher is another classic code that is simple yet highly effective for creating secret messages. In this method, you create unique symbols for each letter of the alphabet based on a grid system. Your recipient will also need to have access to the same cipher grid in order to decode your message correctly.

4. Steganography

Steganography is the art of hiding messages within non-secret text or images, making it difficult for anyone else to identify them as containing covert communication. For example, you can create a secret note by placing sporadically colored dots on a printed image or by writing your message using different shades of pen ink within a seemingly innocuous letter.

5. Reverse Writing

Mirror writing may seem like a child’s trick, but it’s been used by some of history’s greats, such as Leonardo da Vinci, to encrypt their notes. To use this method, simply write out your message in reverse. When held up to a mirror, the reversed text becomes easily readable. This technique is perfect for impromptu secret notes since it requires no special encoding techniques or complex keys to decipher.

No matter which method you choose to make your secret note, remember that half the fun is in the challenge itself. Practice and perfect these methods to keep your secrets safe and your mysterious correspondence delightfully intriguing.