Easy DIY Potion Bottles for Halloween – Free Labels

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Square feature image for four DIY Postion bottle in front of a dark background.

Make DIY Potion bottles this spooky season!

Don’t buy ready-made apothecary bottles to add to your tiered tray or Halloween decor – make them! Any small to medium glass bottles will work for this DIY. I used a combination of glass bottles from the recycle bin, Dollar Tree, and yard sale finds.

Check out the video below and tutorial details below to learn more!

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Easy DIY Potion Bottles for Halloween – How-to Video

YouTube video

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Supplies

How to Make DIY Potion Bottles – 6 Easy Steps

STEP 1: Spray Paint Bottles

Start by gathering up small glass bottles and jars. Remove existing labels and clean the outside with glass cleaner.

Then spritz your glass bottles with water (see the video above for the technique) and spray paint them with Mirror Effect spray paint (link in the supplies list above).

Bottle spritzed with water before applying mirror effects spray paint to give a worn look to the bottles.

STEP 2: Print Labels

Next, print out the labels (link to the Free Potion Bottle Labels in the Supply list above). Print them larger or smaller depending on what works best with your bottles.

You can do this easily by adjusting the Custom Scaling settings in your print dialog box. I printed out three different sizes to match the size of my bottles at 100%, 75%, and 50%.

DIY Potion Bottle - bottle painted and labels printed
Potion Bottle Labels are printed in 3 different sizes to match my bottle sizes.

STEP 3: Rip Labels

Rip the labels by hand to give them a worn, deckled edge look.

Photo showing a hand ripped potion bottle label.
Making labels for potion bottles.

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STEP 4: Age The Labels With Coffee

Apply the coffee technique in the video above using a regular coffee pod. If you have instant coffee, try this technique from fixitsamo on YouTube.

Below are the quick steps and pictures for aging paper with a regular coffee pod–step 4 is important to get a dark color:

Three steps or images show on how to apply coffee to paper to create an aged paper look for DIY Potion Bottle Labels.
How to give the paper an aged look with coffee.
  1. Mix a coffee pod with about 1/2 of a cup of water, stir, and let sit for 5-10 minutes.
  2. Put a paper towel over your labels on an old cookie sheet then spoon the coffee mixture onto the paper towel.
  3. Top with another sheet of paper towel and pat to distribute the coffee.
  4. Carefully remove all the paper towels by gathering them up at the sides. Then squeeze just a little coffee over the top of each label before baking.
  5. Bake until dry in a 350-degree oven. NOTE: Watch carefully, your labels will burn if left in too long. Labels dry and brown in just a few short minutes!

STEP 5: add Finishing Touches And Apply The Labels (optional)

Use a foam applicator to brush a little black acrylic paint to the edges of your labels. I blotted most of the black paint off my brush before applying it for a dry-brushed look.

DIY Potion Bottle - applying black acrylic paint to labels edges
Use a dry brush technique to add black acrylic paint to label edges.

Apply the labels to your potion bottles using Mod Podge. Coat the reverse side of the label with Mod Podge then coat over the top and edges.

DIY Potion Bottle - applying mod podge
Use Mod Podge to apply the labels to all of your potion bottles.

STEP 6: Add Decorations

Last, hot glue on embellishments like skulls, old buttons, charms, bones, bugs, floral moss other decorations complete the spooky potion bottle look.

DIY Potion Bottles - Vertical Pinterest Pin to share
If you love this Spooky DIY, Pin the image above to your Pinterest craft boards to come back to this DIY later!

Update: I Also Made Mini Potion Bottles!

I made mini potion bottles to sell in my antique booth using the same aging technique and labels! I picked up 2-inch tall bottles at Dollar Tree. They’re the perfect size for ornaments to decorate a small spooky Halloween tree.

Photo of five finished mini potion bottles made with glass mini bottles from Dollar Tree. Each is about 2 inches high and has a black silk cord at the top so they can be hung as ornaments on a Halloween tree or anywhere.
Mini Potion Bottles

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