Today's post is the last of the Halloween crafts for the year. I realize that this tutorial comes a little late for anyone to use for this season, but it was a last minute project I did the morning of Halloween, and I wanted to share. We only got a few trick-or-treaters and the hubby is not a big fan of the holiday so hopefully someone will get a kick out of this display. Harry Potter fans, maybe?
Anywho... Halloween was a very long day for us. We spent 6 hours at the dealership buying me a new car. By the time we got home, baby and I were starving and we'd missed half of the neighborhood kids. So I ended up with 18 full-sized candy bars that I'm sure won't last as long as they should. But I still donned my last-minute Halloween costume and smiled for the little princesses and Jedi Knights.
In a very rare turn of events, I have actually posted a picture of my pregnant self on the internet. Mainly because I thought the shirt I made was worth sharing. I found some skeleton stencils on Pinterest and used my Freezer Paper T-Shirt tutorial to paint the design on my shirt.
Anywho... Halloween was a very long day for us. We spent 6 hours at the dealership buying me a new car. By the time we got home, baby and I were starving and we'd missed half of the neighborhood kids. So I ended up with 18 full-sized candy bars that I'm sure won't last as long as they should. But I still donned my last-minute Halloween costume and smiled for the little princesses and Jedi Knights.
In a very rare turn of events, I have actually posted a picture of my pregnant self on the internet. Mainly because I thought the shirt I made was worth sharing. I found some skeleton stencils on Pinterest and used my Freezer Paper T-Shirt tutorial to paint the design on my shirt.
But back to the actual reason for this post... my DIY potion bottles. I wanted to make a display that would attract the kids to our house and make them remember the awesome neighbors that made an effort for Halloween. Or I just love the holiday and wanted to make cool stuff that I could blog about later. Either way, that's how the idea for the bottles came about.
I thought of the idea a while back and just never really got around to doing the actual work. So when Halloween morning rolled around and I didn't have a cool display, I launched into action. First, I removed some labels from a few beer bottles. I soaked them in hot, soapy water for a few minutes, then scraped the labels and residue off with a drywall knife. I dried them and gathered them up with the other jars and bottles I bought at A.C. Moore. They were on sale for something like a dollar a piece.
Once I had the bottles I wanted to use, I set up a spot in the yard to start painting them. I used a cardboard box and sprayed them two at a time.
I thought of the idea a while back and just never really got around to doing the actual work. So when Halloween morning rolled around and I didn't have a cool display, I launched into action. First, I removed some labels from a few beer bottles. I soaked them in hot, soapy water for a few minutes, then scraped the labels and residue off with a drywall knife. I dried them and gathered them up with the other jars and bottles I bought at A.C. Moore. They were on sale for something like a dollar a piece.
Once I had the bottles I wanted to use, I set up a spot in the yard to start painting them. I used a cardboard box and sprayed them two at a time.
I used a Rust-Oleum Hammered spray in dark bronze to give the bottles a rustic base coat with a little bit of texture. I sprayed one layer just to make them opaque.
Then I sprayed a light layer of a flat black spray paint over the dark bronze layer. Not enough to cover it. Just to darken it up a little and give it a mottled look.
Once I let all the bottles and jars dry, I brought them inside to apply the labels.
I found some great FREE labels here on Pinterest. I printed them out in two different sizes and cut them out. I decided which labels I wanted to put on which bottles based on their sizes. I took into account what the ingredients were as well, but that wasn't as important. I just made sure the "Feathers of the Crow" weren't stuck in a tall beer bottle that they obviously couldn't be easily removed from. Even though I had no intention of putting anything in any of the bottles. Hence the spray paint.
To apply the labels, I used Mod Podge. For a more detailed tutorial on the awesomeness of Mod Podge, click here. As for this project, I just applied it like glue to the back of the labels and stuck them on the bottles.
I was strapped for time so I just smoothed the labels down with my hands and did not apply another layer of Mod Podge on top. I might do that before I put the bottles in storage just so they last until next Halloween without getting ripped up.
Once I had all the labels glued on, I added them to my other porch decorations. I took some pictures of the other items I put out.
Considering the table with the potion bottles was a last-minute addition, I was pretty pleased with the results. It's only the second year we've been in a house for Halloween, and this is a vast improvement from last year's display. I figure I will just step it up every year.
Until next year...
Until next year...