Message in a bottle help...
 

Hi!

Since this is the best place for creativity, I thought I would see if you all could help. I have been approached about making a "Message in a bottle" for a baby shower coming up. She wants it to be like a name frame, only in a bottle. Does that make any sense at all??

I have seen quite a few really cool bottles with messages rolled up in them, but they want his name to show as a decoration for his nursery. Any help you can offer will be GREATLY appreciated as I am STUCK!!!

Thanks!

Missy

Could you do it like the ornaments you'd do at Christmas with the glass balls? So stamp the baby's name onto acetate that is cut to the right dimensions to be flat inside the bottle, roll it up and push it through the neck - it should spring out flat once it's pushed right inside.

Not sure I explained that well, hope you can figure out what I mean!

I just searched for instructions on how to do those. I have never done one but that may be the best way to accomplish this. Do you have instructions on how to do these?

I made some Christmas ornaments like this using the clear glass balls. They turned out really well and weren't too difficult. Let me see if I can find the directions for you.:)

Thank you Bugga! That would be awesome!

Here's a pretty good tutorial with pictures. Keep in mind that the acetate shape she is using is a circle, and pretty much just fits inside the glass ball.

If you are using a bottle, you would probably need to change the shape, maybe to an oval. And be sure you leave a "tag" at the top to hang on to when inserting it, so it won't fall down too far into the bottle.

When I did my ornaments, I actually tied a length of that clear nylon thread to the top of my acetate shape and let it extend out of the glass ball a little, so I was sure the image would stay straight. What I'm saying will probably make more sense once you look at the tutorial.

Encouraging Someone: Glass Christmas Ornament Tutorial

Thanks for the tutorial and the tips! I need all I can get!!! I knew this was the place to come!!

Sorry, time difference worked against us and I headed off to bed just after posting!

I agree with Bugga that you'd need to change the shape from the ball ornament instuctions but I think I'd probably go with a rectangle. You'd want it to be the length of the bottle from where the shoulder starts to slope in and allowing for any "bump" up into the bottom of the bottle and then as wide as the diameter of the bottle. Add a "stalk" to help you with keeping hold and manouevering it.

I've just grabbed a bottle image from the web and added a little diagram to help get what's in my head across a bit better!

If you were really going for maximum chance of the outline of the acetate being "invisbile" you could try to trace the curve of the bottle shoulder rather than having a blunt edge to the rectangle at that end but that would probably be pretty tricky, I can't think of an easy way to be sure of an accurate transfer of that shape. Maybe somebody else will come up with something!

HTH!

Thank you all for your help! I knew where to come for the answers!

I don't have any line art alphabet stamps and I don't have the stazon colors needed for this nursery. Any suggestions on what I can do? I thought about die cutting his name from acetate (cuttlebug or big shot) and then coloring with sharpies. My problem is, how do I adhere it to the acetate triangle so that it won't show? UGH....

BTW...I found a bottle at Hobby Lobby that has a flat bottom (triangle shaped). Perfect for this so that it doesn't roll around.