Introduction: "Not So Scary" Halloween Display

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About: We're Mother Daughter Projects, sharing our DIY adventures as we learn to maintain, improve, decorate, and use tech in our homes.

Vicki volunteers at a thrift store and gets great ideas for new projects. She wanted to make a "not so scary" halloween display and this is what she came up with! Watch the video to see how it all came together.

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Step 1: 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 burn 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 know, 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 JoAnn Fabrics. (Mainly because i misplaced the decanter top!) After I found it I added Glo in the dark paint inside. Once that was dry I added the same burnt carmine used on the bottle.

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 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 & glue into place. A hot blue/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.

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.

Step 2: Mrs. Butterworth Ghosts

Raw Materials:

  • 2 vintage Mrs. Butterworth bottles, caps removed

Purchased or from personal craft stash

  • White glass spray paint
  • Glow in the dark paint
  • Cork or something to stuff in bottle opening to keep paint from getting inside
  • Candle to fit opening

Cork the opening of the bottle. (I didn’t want to get paint inside so if at some point I wanted to remove the white paint I could do so easily without damaging the bottle. That is also why the original caps are not sued in the project.) Spray paint bottles with white paint. Once dry, use glow in the dark pain on the faces, buttons, & hands. Put candles in the opening, light, and help with dripping effect along by holding another candle in the flame & allowing it to drip down the bottle.

Step 3: Spooky & Pumpkin Blocks

Raw Materials:

  • Wood alphabet letter block & orange & green slim rectangular blocks
  • Plastic wire nuts, lamp turn switch, or something for a stem
  • Metal remnant from drawer pulls or something round like a button

Purchased or from personal craft stash

  • Hot glue gun/sticks
  • Crafting wire, spring from ball point pen, small diameter skewer on which to wrap crafting wire
  • Old lace remanent
  • Oil Rubbed bronze & orange goss spray paint
  • Gold metallic craft paint or gold Rub n Buf
  • Small stiff paint brush
  • Long screws, floral or styrofoam, burnt umber or brown craft paint

For Spooky Blocks

Spray all sides of blocks with oil rubbed bronze. After block are dry, dry brush the gold metallic craft paint onto the letters concentrating on the edges of the letters and the texture of the lines on the block. Dip paint brush into gold metallic craft paint making sure to dab almost all of it off. Brush it on lightly & then immediately rub it off. Add a little at a time to get the effect you want. If you use Rub n Buf, follow the manufacturer’s directions.

Block Pumpkins with green stems

Hot glue the orange block to the four sides of the green block. Keep the blocks bottoms flat to keep everything square. Wrap about 10” or so of black crafting wire lightly around the skewer (about 1/8” in diameter), not too tight or you’ll never get it off. Find the center of the wire, place this on the back side of the green block & bring the two ends to the from, crossing & twisting them in front. The edges of the orange can be distressed with the same gold metallic paint followed by some dark distressing ink.

Block Pumpkins

Spray paint blocks orange. After they are dry, hot glue metal remnant or round object of your choosing to the top of the block. To paint the wire nut or turn knobs, lightly screw the items onto long screws, dip them directly into the craft paint, and set the screw end on the foam to dry. Once dry, hot glue the nut or knob to the top of the round metal piece. Decorate with additional black crafting wire, the old lace, or stretch a ball point pen spring to use a vine tendrils.