Message in a Bottle (Inter'l!) - Holiday Themed

The first two rounds of my USA Message in a Bottle swaps were great! All of my participants received "5" ratings and some hearts, too! Sounds like you all did a great job according to the ratings I read. So let's do this again! This time I'm including an International version, which is this one!

For this swap, you will use a clear plastic water or juice bottle, around 16 or 20 oz sized. I believe this is around 1/2 liter for our countries that use that measurement. Basically it is a Coca-Cola, Pepsi, or other soda bottle or a Minute Maid or other brand of fruit juice bottle. Make sure it is clean and DRY before putting anything inside.

Then write a letter to your partner. There is a minimum page requirement of 2 pages on 5x7 sized paper. You may use 8.5x11 sized paper if you want to write a 1 page letter. Please do not write obviously large just to fill up your page(s) more quickly. Use your best handwriting, and if you write large naturally, then let your minimum page requirement be 3 pages.

Roll up your letter, tie it with a ribbon, and insert it in the neck of your bottle.

To finish off your message in a bottle, let's put some "fun stuff" in there. Let's think "Holidays"! You can include Thanksgiving or Fall themed items or Christmas/Winter themed items or both! Read your partner's profile to get some ideas. Use these ideas to drop in things your partner might enjoy. For example, confetti shapes, beads, brads, marble or two, charms, stickers, little wrapped presents ... use your imagination! Just make it FUN! :-)

As a side note, if there is something you want to include in your bottle, but it is too big to insert into the neck of the bottle, you can cut a "flap" into the side of your bottle, a little door large enough to insert the item(s), and when you are done filling your bottle, use clear packing tape to seal this flap well. Also before mailing your bottle, use packing tape to wrap around the neck and cap of your bottle.

You can decorate the outside of your bottle with stickers or whatever you think will survive the "handling" of the postal system. Be creative! Securely affix your partner's address to the outside of the bottle, take it to your post office and put the correct amount of postage on it. As a stamp lover, may I encourage you to use actual stamps to decorate your bottle rather than the metered postage label? It adds color and makes your bottle more fun, if that is possible. :)

Now in the USA, it is allowable to send this container as "Mail". So if your post office gives you grief about sending a plastic bottle in the mail, go to another post office. Most of us had no problems mailing our bottles in the last round, though I think someone did have to go to another post office where they encountered no trouble in sending.

In other countries, I am not familiar with any restrictions that may be placed on packages. If you KNOW that you're not allowed to put your bottle directly in the mail, then put it in a box and mail it. And share that information here in the Comments, if you will, for other's information. And for my information, too! :) However, I'd love for you to try to mail the bottle free of extra packaging if possible.

And that is about all! If you all have any further ideas, thoughts, or comments, please share them below. We're all interested in hearing different perspectives regarding this swap.

Before joining, please make sure as a swapper that you meet the following requirements, because in order to have a great swap for everyone, I will have to drop you from the swap if I see/feel you will not complete the swap.

Requirements:

• You live anywhere on the planet Earth.
• You have a rating of 4.8 or higher.
• You have completed at least 10 "Type 3" swaps.
• You have no unexplained 1's over the last 6 consecutive months of your swapping history.

I will ANGEL if necessary, but I don't expect I will have to as I will be checking profiles and ratings. Be a super swapper and come have fun with this Message in a Bottle swap!!