This time capsule is more personal and will not be hidden for years before it is opened. All year long, the owner can look at his keepsakes and bring back memories of summer vacation, campouts, school, Christmas, family reunions, graduations, a day at the ocean, trip to Disneyland, or any other memory makers.
Choosing a Capsule Bottle
Begin the time capsule by choosing a clear plastic bottle such as soda and water come in. A two-liter bottle gives more room for collectables, but may take more room to store or display than desired. The bottle should be clear. Clean the label off the bottle and wash and dry it thoroughly. The best style to use is a smooth-sided bottle. Glass bottles with unusual shapes can be used but must have a screw style lid.
After the bottle is dry, fill it with clean sand (or with beach sand if you go to the ocean or a lake). The sand will hold the items and keep them viewable. Sand can be purchased in small bags at craft shops or in larger packages at garden centers. Other fillers which can work are Easter basket grass or shredded paper, cotton balls, or raffia ribbon.
Items for Time Capsules
Choose a topic for the memory bottle. For a summer vacation bottle some things to include might be ticket stubs, small sea shells, feathers, photos cut from postcards, small stones, hair barrettes, ribbons, candy wrappers, crayons, coins, bits of beach glass, plastic toys, a bit cut from a road map, etc.
A camping trip bottle could contain sand, small rocks, a tiny flag, feathers, pine needles, twigs, or shapes of butterflies, pine trees, animals, or birds cut from poster board. Items must be small enough to fit into the neck of the bottle, of course. Things like ticket stubs from theme parks, movie theaters, or drama productions can be rolled and slipped into the bottle. Roll them carefully avoiding creases that might keep the papers folded up inside the bottle.
Small or thin objects, such as pencils decorated with the name of a place or symbols of a holiday, work great. Items that symbolize activities or events can be added, such as a blue crayons to symbolize the ocean, or red to symbolize the sunset. Adding some glitter or plastic stars or confetti bits can add pizzazz to the collection.
Don’t select items that will spoil or corrode in the sand, like batteries or copper coins.
Putting Together a Time Capsule
After your adventure, trip, or holiday, place the items into the sand bottle. They should move around freely in the bottle when shaken. Too much sand keeps the items from moving.
Papers and small pictures can be rolled gently and slipped through the bottle neck. When all items are in the bottle, shaking and rolling it should reveal everything. With each new shake, different items become visible.
The screw top in place on the bottle and taped with clear mailing tape around the seams of the lid, seals the sand inside and prevents anyone from opening the bottle. Cover the tape with a ribbon or with colored paper.
The next step is to write the title for your keepsake collection on a small piece of white paper. For example, TRIP TO GRAND CANYON—SUMMER 2009, or SMITH FAMILY REUNION—09. The label is taped onto the bottle in such a position so as not to interfere with seeing what is inside the bottle.
Collecting up pieces of memorabilia is part of the fun. The use of a bottle for the display enables the child to present the collection in an interesting and convenient form that is easy to show to friends and family. The display on your desk or shelf can recall memories of the trip or event for months or years to come.
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