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Easy Faux Mercury Glass DIY Potion Bottles

These easy to make faux mercury glass potion bottles are excellent Halloween decor items!

I love going to décor shops like Home Sense (Canada’s version of Home Goods) and Target and Michaels and checking out all their seasonal home décor items.

But I have a bit of a problem. Not with buying it all. But with thinking that I can somehow find the time to DIY it all myself.

I think it is a syndrome. “DIYitis”. I’m not sure if it has made it into the DSMV-IV yet but perhaps on the next revision? I wonder what the cure is?

{Well, if the cure is to quit shopping and pinning then I doubt that is going to happen.}

Potion Bottles

These easy Faux Mercury Glass DIY Potion Bottles were inspired by one such shopping trip. The bottles I saw retailed for $8-10 each and I created all three of these for about $10. Plus, I still have hoards of spray paint left over for future projects! Ya, I don’t see a cure for this “DIYitis” coming anytime soon.

The potion bottles on stacked books.

To create these you will need:

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  • glass bottles (mine were $0.50 each from a thrift store)
  • Krylon Metallic Silver or Krylon Looking Glass Spray Paint (which I was not able to find so I settled for high gloss silver – but the Looking Glass Spray Paint works best)
  • black spray paint (I used a FLAT/MAT finish)
  • a spray bottle with a vinegar-water solution (50-50 mix)
  • embellishments for the caps (I used faux plastic skulls from the dollar store)
  • hot glue

The paint spray laid out on a drop cloth outside.

Start by spraying the vinegar into the glass bottle so it beads up…you want beads, not just “runs” of vinegar. Where the vinegar and water are on the glass is where the spray paint won’t stick.

Spraying vinegar into the glass bottles.

Work super quickly, so that you still have lots of ‘beads’ of vinegar-water. Spray the metallic Silver (or Looking Glass) spray paint inside the bottle and shake it/rolling it around a little and hang it upside down to let it drain out.

If your silver finish looks too opaque or solid then just immediately spray more vinegar onto the fresh spray paint and it should ‘bead off’ some of the paint finish.

The sprayed glass bottles drying upside down.

I practiced this process first on an old glass baby food jar to make sure I knew what I was doing.

Do this as many times as you like depending on how much silver you want to show (I did 2-3 coats of silver) and then repeat the process with the black spray paint if you want to add a little blackish hue coming through behind the silver. You could also just stick with the straight silver beaded finish.

You don’t want all those gross, creepy potion ingredients falling out- so time to make some lids.

I first attached some inexpensive plastic skulls to the bottle lids using hot glue…

Using hot glue to attach the plastic skulls onto the bottles.

The hot glue gun and the skulls.

Three skulls.

I then did the same finish on the skull lids but in reverse…
I started by painting out the whole lid with Mat Black spray paint.

The spray paint and the skulls.

Once the mat black paint was dry, I sprayed the vinegar solution onto the skull lids, then immediately sprayed the silver paint on top of the beaded vinegar-water solution. I then immediately resprayed the vinegar onto the skull lids to remove some of the silver allowing more of the black to show through.

Bottles and Lids done – time for some Potion Labels!

I printed these ones off – they are courtesy of The Graphics Fairy.

Cutting out some potion labels.

I attached them using Mod Podge.
To avoid bubbling my labels I started with a thin coat on the back of the label, gently pressed it onto the bottle pressing out any bubbles or ridges, let dry, and then applied a top coat of Mod Podge once the bottom coat was dry.

Using Mod Podge on the back of the labels.

 

Attaching the labels to the bottles.

Done! Aren’t these potion bottles perfect for Halloween?!

The decorated bottles displayed on a stack of books.

Think you might try it?

Pin it to remember it!

Easy DIY Faux Mercury Glass Potion Bottles poster.

I put these on our Halloween Mantel this year…

Halloween House Tour Living Room and Dining Room at The Happy Housie-22

Did you spot them the other day in our Halloween House Tour?

Spooktacular Halloween House Tour at The Happy Housie

 

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6 Comments

  1. Love your version. Krista! I would swear you picked these right up off the shelf at Target! I suffer from the same ailment. Glad to know there’s a name for it now, DIYitis! LOL

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