A Little Halloween craft “for kids”
By The other day I received a Halloween “potion” bottles craft kit for kids and promptly made some bottles with my son and a couple of his friends. I absolutely loved the simplicity of the craft. However, I thought the accoutrements included in the kit were sort of cheesy and chintzy. But that didn’t stop the kids from having a ton of fun with it. So I decided to recreate the craft on a grander scale.
This is fantastic craft for younger people or people who are not super comfortable crafting, because it’s so simple. It’s also not a huge time sink. You can make this as easy or complex as you want to.
What you’ll need:
- Potion/poison bottles with corks
- Labels (You can also design your own, print your own using free printables, or, of course, draw them yourself)
- Mod Podge
- Halloween Ribbon (or jute or kitchen twine…or any sort of string or ribbon you like)
- Food coloring
- An assortment of glitter
- Any tiny Halloween novelties you want to jam into the bottles (like, say, tiny bats, skulls, bones or spiders. Some people craft their own little ghosts and just stuff them in there)
- Water
I have linked to all the items I purchased from Amazon, but of course you can do your own googling and buy supplies at places like Target, Wal-Mart, Michael’s, JoAnn’s, Dollar Tree…basically any place that sells crafting supplies. Oriental Trading Company is also a great resource for novelties.
- Whether using your own label or a purchased one, affix it to your bottle of choice and use it as a guide for the next steps. For instance, if you’re making a bat wing potion, you want to make something, uh, batty looking. In other words, let the label determine your coloring, glitter and mix-in choices. I strongly recommend using Mod Podge to seal your labels after you’ve completed your potion.
- Fill your bottle with water. Not to the top, and take care not to get the outside of the bottle wet, if you can.
- Put a few drops of food coloring into the bottles. You can mix and match to make whatever color you like. You won’t need more than 2-6 drops of each color. Food coloring is potent stuff.
- Pour in the glitter of your choice. Don’t be afraid to mix and match. More is often better, but not always. You’ll also add your mix-ins here, too. Do your own thing and give each bottle its own personality.
- Put the cork in the bottle. Very GENTLY shake the bottle, to mix the colors and get the glitter and mix-ins moving and grooving.
- Tie a ribbon (or jute or twine or yarn or whatever) around the neck of the bottle.
- Seal your labels, if desired.
- Impress everyone with how incredibly cool you are. Or maybe make some people vaguely afraid of you–your choice!
It’s just that easy, folks. Also, super fun and a way to be creative in a sort of “instant gratification” sort of way.