Sunday, November 29, 2009

Ship In a Bottle Card

When I first saw the ship in a bottle card, created and posted by JulieH, I was totally blown away. I thought it was the coolest looking card I'd seen in a long time, and of course I wanted to try one too. But when I went over to www.craftersdelight.co.uk to purchase the template, I was disappointed because I couldn't find it anywhere on the site. I really had my heart set on making this card for my dad...in his younger years, building ships in tiny glass bottles was a hobby of his and I have always been so amazed with his beautifully detailed creations. I thought this card would be perfect for his upcoming birthday. So after spending a long time staring at the photos Julie had posted, I decided I would try and wing it. Ha, ha...yeah, I'm nutz. Anyway, you definitely should go take a look at Julie's card, because it is truly awesome. Mine is my lame attempt to re-create it without a template. If you read Julie's post on this card you'll see that she ran into some difficulties constructing the "bottle" even with the template...so I pretty much figured I was up for quite a challenge.
The boat was easy. The Mayflower cut is from the My World cartridge, cut several times at 2-3/4" and layered. The bottle was another story all together. Everything was guess-timated based on Julie's photos. Basically it was just "cut and create as you go". For the body of the bottle, I cut a rectangular piece of clear shrink plastic with tabs which I tried to tuck into slits cut in the base card stock. The shrink plastic was way too rigid and difficult to work with. For the neck and bottom of the bottle I used pieces cut from a plastic pillowbox I had, which was a little more flexible and cooperative. A funnel shaped piece connected to a smaller rectangular piece were used to create the neck of the bottle and an circle shaped piece folded in half for the bottle bottom. I used double stick tape to connect all the pieces and a lot of twine and gold foil ribbon to hide all the seams and tape. The finished size of the card was about 8.5 x 5.5".
The end result was kind of messy looking, but okay I guess. I wish I had a cork like Julie did to cork my bottle too. I'm pretty sure I'll never be making this again unless I get ahold of the template. Either that, or maybe I will try using a plastic water bottle cut in half lengthwise next time....any brave souls up to the challenge?

9 comments:

Cyndi said...

very creative! love it!

Kelly said...

WOW...WOW...WOW! I seen Julie's card and I'd say you did a fabulous job without the template. NOT a lame attempt at all! Your Dad is going to love it!

Jodi said...

Wow! This is just fantastic! You are very creative... of course I already knew that!!
Hugs
Jodi =)

Denise said...

Wow, this is absolutely stunning, you are so creative!! TFS
Hugs~

Joy said...

what a cute card! who would have thought about this! always wondered how they got a ship in a bottle! lol! so creative you are!

Creations by Patti said...

Wow - Eunice. This project is totally impressive. Your experience in making this fabulous 3-D is well worth it. Sounds like you don't need a template at all. You go, girl - you figured it out!!!! And, it looks so fabulous, too. TFS your creativity! Hugs from the mainland! P

Anonymous said...

I loved her card, too, and also attempted it without the template. Mine didn't turn out as well as yours, but the recipient liked it...phew!
Your card is so pretty and quite professional looking. But, everything you make is :0)

PJ (Jessie Adams)

Anonymous said...

http://www.craftersdelight.co.uk/index.php?page=products&sup=0&cat=all&sub=none&pg=2&productID=7500&txtSearch=bottle

Here is the link for the bottle template. It looks pricey.

~JulieH~ said...

Oh how did I miss this!! I was just looking back at my blog and came across your comment and wow you did a wonderfuljob without the template,I could never have done it by eye! And I think your card looks so rich and classy on the gold background/Wonderful work!
Juliexx