The Starry Sea and Message in a Bottle

Hi there,
well when I first saw the sketch for this weeks challenge from Makeesha - I broke out in a sweat - I kid you not. What was I going to do with this! Here's the sketch so you can see what I mean.

It was seriously challenging, yes I know that is the point! Tag, luggage tags, windows all flashed before my eyes and then for some strange reason I thought "hey the central element could be a bottle". Next step from there was what goes in bottle - ships and messages of course!! Now I really did not mean to do two cards this week, but I just had to follow the two ideas up, and well this month I am really just concentrating on Keesh's challenges. So my "official" card is the one below but keep going if you want to see my second idea for the sketch.

Well the family friend who was expecting a baby had a boy, so I needed another baby card so I decided to use my ship in a bottle idea for this one. The Baja base is double layered, so the two silver brads don't show through to the inside, the top Baja layer was clear embossed with the Classic Stars wheel, and I also embossed stamping first with white craft ink and then using white embossing powder, the star, ship and sentiment from Nursery Necessities. The star and ship are raised up on dimensionals and so is the DSP sail. I created the waves by using the small oval punch on an angle, once that was SNAILed on to the Baja layer I paper pierced the wave pattern. The create the thread at the top of the bottle, I used my bone folder and the track on my cutter, then used a gel pen to highlight the thread, wiping most of it back with a slightly damp cloth. Some ribbon finishes it off. Now, here is card two.

Ok, well card two is my version of a message in a bottle. Once again the base layer (Sahara) is double layered so that the brass brads won't show through to the inside). I stamped that with Sanded in Sahara, the message is En Francais stamped in Not Quite Navy onto Confetti White, then scrunched up a bit and the top corner rolled over and stuck down with glue dots. Behind the bottle I white embossed (most of) the Something Fishy wheel onto Not Quite Navy, used the small oval punch again to create waves, paper pierced just below the waves and then layered that onto a Confetti layer. A white embossed sentiment (I figured if you're stuck on an island and putting a message in a bottle you are certainly thinking of someone!), a Sahara "cork" and some hemp twine finish it off. Hope you liked them :)

To finish once again big thanks go to Sam, who I borrowed more stuff from. Ta!!
I also want to say a special hello to Keesh who has sent me over an award - thanks lovely lady:)

To check out the other design team creations click on the links below.
Karen
Cindy
Renee
Kirsty
Amy

Recipe: (All SU unless otherwise noted)
"Starry Seas"
Stamps:Nursery Necessities, Classic Stars
Card Stock: Baja Breeze,Basic Grey, Whisper White
Ink: White Craft, Versamark, Baja Breeze
Accessories: Urban Garden DSP, Silver hodgepodge, Kiwi Kiss satin ribbon, white and clear embossing powder, white gel pen, Corner Rounder punch, Small Oval punch and small Star punch, Piercing tool and mat pack, Dimensionals, SNAIL adhesive, double sided tape.

"Message in a Bottle"
Stamps: En Francais, Sanded, Something Fishy
Card Stock: Sahara Sand, Confetti White, Not Quite Navy
Ink: White Craft, Not Quite Navy
Accessories: White embossing powder, Brass Bo Bunny brads, Corner Rounder punch, Small Oval punch, Piercing tool and mat pack, hemp twine, Glue Dots, Dimensionals, SNAIL adhesive, double sided tape.