This is one time when bottling up your feelings can actually lead to something good. :) This project was inspired by Sharon Soneff’s fantastic book, Art Journals and Creative Healing: Restoring the Spirit Through Self-Expression. I imagined myself a sort of existential advertising exec: if I could bottle up freedom, what would it look like? How would it taste?

I think Freedom comes in many flavors: hope, courage, faith, truth, love, peace, joy, compassion… For me, freedom is found in my faith and in the love of those close to me; freedom is acknowledging my myriad imperfections and continuing to learn and grow in spite of them — on good days, because of them.

To construct this piece, I started with an empty 4-pack of Starbuck’s Frappuccino (my husband happily accommodated me when it came to the emptying part :), a stack of cardstock, and a few pieces of ribbon and beads. I sanded and inked the cardstock to age it and bring out the texture, then added hand-made labels and logos.

I finished by adding a little embellishment to the tops of the bottles and then wrote down the daily victories that represent freedom to me. I continue to add to the bottles, and I won’t consider this project complete until they’re overflowing.