“Not So Scary” Halloween: Potion Bottles & Wand

by Vicki

This project was so much fun! I’ve been wanting to try my hand at creating these since noticing them on Pinterest. There is no right or wrong way to create the bottles & wands—use your imagination & your treasure trove of crafting stuff. (What? not everyone has bins & boxes of totally random stuff to craft with?!)

Harry Potter Style Wands
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Raw Materials:

• A stick at least 12” to  21” or so. I used a small diameter bamboo stick about 3/8” in diameter. You could also use chopsticks or dowel sticks
• Beaded metal chain—I had a really long piece but smaller sections could be used. Cut off the connector piece with wire cutters
• Pull from ceiling fan

Purchased or from personal craft stash

• Oil rubbed bronze spray paint
• Tacky glue
• Hot glue gun/sticks

1. Pour a good size puddle of tacky glue into a small container, drop the beaded chain into the glue, coating it really well.
2. Starting at one end, spiral the chain onto the stick. I used a small binder clip to keep the end in place.
3. Let dry. If the ends have come unglued, reattach with hot glue.
4. Next, I sqiggled glue round and round haphazardly about 4” or so beyond the bead chain.
5. The ceiling fan pull has a hole in it. Add hot glue (watch your fingers) & push the stick into the pull. Once dry, spray the entire wand with the oil rubbed bronze.
6. I stuck the point end of the stick in styrofoam to spray paint it. Once it was dry, I sprayed the other end.

I made a wand box following these instructions & Steph dug out an authentic bag from the wand shop at Universal Studios!

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Harry Potter Style Potion Bottles
Raw Materials:

• A selection of clean bottles—I used a vinegar bottle (the tall black one), a green vase bottle, a glass engraved decanter from some class of 1970 reunion & a flat sided bottle (perhaps a liquor bottle?) that had it’s origins in a crafting project I never finished.
• Gray, black, red, & green crayons (wrapper removed)
• Scrap of vintage or ratty lace
• Doodad for the veritaserum bottle (I used a coin)
• Green pom pom

Purchased or from personal craft stash

• Oil rubbed bronze spray paint
• Hot glue gun/sticks
• Jute Twine
• Harry Potter labels printed (at home) on parchment-like paper 
  
• Corn syrup, green food coloring & glitter for polyjuice potion
• White tissue paper
• Silver Rub 'n Buff
• Burnt Carmine Folk Art Acrylic Paint (Artists’ Pigment)
• Distressing ink in brown
• Mod Podge
• Finely ground chalk
• Glow in the Dark paint (white, but glows green)

Veritaserum Potion
This was the “reunion” decanter. Since it had engraving on it, I wanted to do something to it to cover up the writing. I mixed up a little Modge Podge with some finely ground chalk. (I crushed it, then pressed it through a fine sieve using a pestle like tool—yes it was tedious, but I got the consistency I wanted.) I brushed this on the bottom where the engraving was & let it dry.

Next I mixed a bit of the burnt carmine paint with Mod Podge and brushed it vertically onto the bottle making sure to add a little extra to the engraved crab on the bottle. Once dry, I glued a bit of vintage lace onto the neck of the bottle, wrapped it in twine starting at the top. I tied a knot in the twine to hold it in place. I squirted a blob of hot glue onto the knot, mixed in a little green crayon, & pressed a coin into it once it cooled a bit. (Again, watch your fingers—it’s hot!) The label margins were cut away & the entire thing distressed with the brown ink. I used Mod Podge to glue it in place.

For the pictures I added a flickering bulb from a craft store.

Polyjuice Potion

• The label was cut out, margins removed & distressed with brown ink. Mod Podge was used to glue it in place.
• Burnt Carmine was dripped down the sides of the bottle.
• A potion of corn syrup, green food coloring & white glitter was poured slowly into the bottle. FYI, corn syrup is a mess to pour! It's really cool though as the food color slowly settles down into the corn syrup. It’s been about four days since I made the bottle & the food coloring is still basically sitting on the top of the syrup.
• The bottle was topped with a green pom pom.

Amortentia

• The Love bottle—this is the tall black vinegar bottle.
• The label was distressed & attached like the first two.
• A bit of lace was added & glued into place.
• A hot glue/crayon seal was made like the veritaserum bottle & a heart stamp was used.
• The wax like top with the embossed #9 was made with a combination of one black & one gray crayon to 6 mini glue sticks. These were melted in a can. Once melted the top was  dipped into the “wax” and stamped with a #9 before it was cool. I used this tutorial 
• I like the look, but it was messy & a little dangerous to do, plus it made a terrible smell. Not sure I’d repeat this particular effect.

Slug Repellent

• This bottle was covered in Mod Podge, then covered sloppily with crumpled tissue paper.
• Once dry, I sprayed it with oil rubbed bronze.
• The bottle was highlighted with silver Rub ’n Buff following the manufacturer’s instructions.
• Practice first to learn the technique as it requires a light hand.
• The label was distressed & attached & twine added to the neck. This time I made the crayon & glue stamp on a piece of non-stick aluminum foil. I peeled it off when cooled and hot glued it to the bottle. It can also be made on the  bottom of a glass with a flat bottom. Cool then peel off.