Message in a Bottle

Hi everyone!! This is Jen from Jen's Ink Spot with you today! For today's project I wanted to share with you something I put together for my son's birthday.  This was based on one of the most creative pieces of mail I have ever received!! I think I gasped when I received it and then immediately thought about how I could use that same idea some day...and I did!

So, what did I receive?  It was a plastic bottle with a message inside!  How fun!!  I took that same concept and created a gift for my son.   He loves to get money so that he can buy the toys he's been eyeing.  I didn't want to just give him the cash for his birthday, I wanted a fun way to package it too, so this was the perfect way to do that!

This is what the gift looked like when I finished with it. 

Here's a closeup of part of the scroll that I rolled up to put inside the bottle. I also had a message on the back side of this as well, and if you'd like to see it, you can visit my blog to see all of the details.  Rolled up along with this note was his birthday money so when he unrolled the scroll, not only did he get the birthday message, he also found the money!

On this picture you can see the message on the scroll that is rolled up.  I had to roll it up really, really tight so that it would fit inside the opening in the bottle. 

To allow the scroll to be pulled out of the bottle without spilling the sand and seashells out, I first rolled the scroll tight and attached rubber bands on the ends to hold it in place while I tied the new Denim twine & Maraschino Twinery twine tightly around the center.  I left the ends of the twine really long.  On the part of the twine that would be in the bottom of the bottle, I cut it so that it would fall right to the bottom of the sand.  I then inserted the scroll into the bottle keeping the other end of the twine outside the bottle and then pushed the cork in to hold the twine in place.  I tied a key charm to the twine (which can be purchased at a craft store) that would allow Mason to pull on to get the message out of the bottle and then I cut the twine to the length I wanted.  

This is what the bottom of the bottle looks like.  It has a little bit of sand and seashells in it. I unraveled the twine slightly to make it look more roughed up. So much fun!

I also wanted to continue the "earthy" theme on the outside of the bottle too but not overdo it since it was suppose to look like it had washed up on shore.  So, I wrapped a little bit of the new Buttercream twine around the outside and tied it in a knot.  No pretty bow either.  Just a plain knot.  Remember, it washed up on shore, lol!!

If you are looking for some bottles to try this yourself, I linked on my blog to some places where I found the plastic bottles online.  Of course if you aren't planning to mail this, glass would work great too and you can find those at many of your large craft stores.

I hope that you enjoyed this project and that it inspired you!