Message in a Bottle

Happy Black Friday! I’m loving that Canada is adopting Black Friday- it’s the perfect time to shop for Christmas gifts. I hope you are all relaxing after a delicious turkey dinner last night. I mentioned on Wednesday that I was excited to be attending an American Thanksgiving dinner and it was SO good guys. They put sausage in the stuffing and I went back for thirds. I would have eaten more but I was trying to keep my cool. Is this a normal thing to do? Have I just been missing out? I need answers! And recipes! Send me your sausage filled stuffing recipes pretty please?!

Anyways, before I share this cute little Message in a Bottle with you, I want to thank you guys for entering the Plumb Goods giveaway last week! The winner is Anita L. and her winning entry was her tweet (I emailed you!) but all of your tweets and shares helped to raise money for their #artbreak campaign… so it really was a win/win :) And I want to say a HUGE thank-you to everyone who’s liked my page on Facebook– I’m pretty sure all but four of the entries were from you!

When I was strolling through Chapters Indigo a while back (one of my favourite outings because there’s a Starbucks in there… tied with Target probably) I spotted these message in a bottle kits. They’re super cute but they’re $17 for three! I decided I could make them instead. It took me a couple weeks, but I remembered I had saved the little bottles from my violet place cards… and they were PERFECT for this! They’re quite small in comparison to the ones at Chapters, but the price tag is too. These little guys are 6 for a dollar at the dollar store. No brainer, right?

I decided to cut a long strip of paper instead of a wider ‘scroll’ to get the look of this ornament I pinned (like three years ago and have never actually done, *sigh*).  I wrote out a little note to my sister for her birthday then rolled it up to pop inside. I used a skewer to adjust the paper once it was inside the bottle to the the look I wanted. That’s really all there is to this fun gift or card replacement! The only thing I would caution you to is that the thicker the paper the harder it is for your giftee to get the paper out of the bottle. I used a heavy cardstock and while it looks so pretty, it took me a while to get it out of the bottle.

This message in a bottle is so much fun to mail in a little box with confetti or tissue as a birthday card but it would also make an amazing invite to a nautical themed party. Like I might have a nautical themed party just to use them as invitations… So, what would you use it for? I’d love to hear your ideas in the comments (as well as some sausage filled stuffing recipes, of course).

PS. I should probably tell you (and my sister if she reads this) that even though her birthday was last week, I just found the box in my office… I forgot to send it! Gifts are no good unless you actually give them. So don’t be like me, okay?