Message in a Bottle......

I have been having fun participating in a mail ART project initiated by my friend Lisa over at http://gomakesomething.com/ . Here's how it works: you go and sign up to play and then ta-da....along comes a bottle, floating to shore from postal land. You marvel at your bottle, then open it up and ooh and aah over all the goodies inside. Guess what?? Everything inside is for YOU to keep!! I Know!! So far so good, right?? So, you can take pics, show your friends, immediately start using your bottles contents....

But wait.....how do you make the fun continue?? Part of the REQUIREMENT for signing up to RECEIVE a bottle is that you are also willing to SEND OUT 2 bottles in return. This is my FAVE part, actually. So, you need to get two bottles (these are 20 ounceish water/soda bottles) that you have removed the labels from, washed and dried. Be selective in your bottles: clear is fun so you can see the trapped goodies and also try for straight sides as you can put MORE goodies in much EASIER!! Cut a 3-sided flap along most of the length of the bottle and carefully fill with goodies.

Now you make be wondering, what should I include. Well, think about what you would want to receive......I put in all sorts of collagey items (bamboo tiles, stamps, game pieces, mini playing cards), fibers, specialty papers and such. Just make it fun and usable. Now, you may have noticed that inside the bottles, besides, goodies, were a print out FYI about the project and 4 mailing labels. This is how it gets really, really great. You look at the labels and see that 2 are the SAME and 2 are DIFFERENT. (Why am I now singing that Sesame Street song....you know...."One of these things is not like the other....one of these things just doesn't belong"). Anywho, you will need to print out 4 copies of YOUR address, plus you will need 2 different address of ARTsy friends who wish to play. Do NOT surprise them....ask first. This program only works when everyone keeps their commitments and plays along. So, in EACH bottle you put 2 copies of your address, 1 copy of the duplicate address that came in your bottle and 1 copy of a friends address. Clear?? :::Smiles::: Don't worry.....I can answer any questions or you can just go to the bottle site which is here: http://gomakesomething.com/category/challenges/mib/ and get answers to all your questions. Besides you have to go there to sign up too!! LOL

So, at this point I added some Halloween confetti and little printed Halloween paper doo-dads just for fun. Next you seal the bottles up with clear tape, over the cut flap, put the mailing label on and again cover with clear tape. Now, I eliminated the screw on cap for my bottles and replaced them with corks. This is because I am a Pirate at heart. You can leave them with their caps and they are JUST fine. I just secured my corks with LOTS of tape. Also, don't forget to put your return address label on there too. I chose to put mine around the neck of the bottle, hoping it wouldn't come back to me.

Anywho, here are the pics of MY completed bottles that are now off floating along in the frightening waves of the Postal System......scary thought I know. Oh, and FYI the cost of mailing them was $1.68 each. Enjoy!! Shelly

Here you can see the Halloween confetti and doo-dads and the corks.

Here you can see the label placement that I used.