DIY Potion Bottles

Just in time for Halloween, learn how you can make your own DIY Harry Potter potion bottles! There are many ways you can create a potion bottle. There is the clear bottle filled with colored liquid/glitter method, the clear bottle filled with plants/other materials method, and many more. But here’s how I made mine! The great part is that you can do my version of potions bottles with entirely recycled containers. I used about half recycled containers and half bought, so you can compare and contrast below.

Hit up my amazon storefront for all of my ideas on books, Harry Potter, Harry Potter Christmas, and more!

Before you do anything, select your potions labels. I took ages scouring the internet and pinterest for labels I liked.

Next, gather your materials. You will need:

  • Access to a color printer
  • Printer paper
  • Black tissue paper
  • Black acrylic paint
  • Paint brushes
  • Ribbons/twine (optional)
  • Plastic/rubber objects (optional)
  • Acrylic paint in metallic or bright colors (optional)
  • Mod podge (matte or glossy, depending on your preference)
  • Elmer’s glue
  • Water
  • Beads (optional)
  • Potion Labels
  • Glass or plastic jars/bottles
  • Permanent glue
  • Hot glue gun

 

Here’s what I used for the containers. Included are things like pickle jars, soy sauce jars, starbucks drinks containers, toner containers, perfume bottles, and bought containers from craft stores.

Remove the labels from your  jars if using recycled materials. This is a Starbucks drink you can buy in a grocery store.

Take your selected potions label and your Mod Podge. I used matte Mod Podge for this craft but if you prefer the look of glossy it will still look great. Paint the bottle with Mod Podge and affix the label.

Next paint Mod Podge on the top of the label. Put it on thick, it will dry clear.

I went around the edges underneath wherever it needed to stick better to the bottle.

Let the labels dry and make your glue/water mix. Add tap water to a small container.

Add a good amount of Elmer’s glue to the water.

Stir well.

Use this mixture to add the tissue paper. Please note you can add the tissue paper to your jar/bottle first and then the label. This will be faster, but I did it the opposite way so the potion label would remain flatter and look better. First add the glue water to the bottle.

Then add tissue paper to the glue mixture.

Cover the tissue paper with more glue water. use a lot, this is what helps make it stick. Don’t be concerned with the tissue paper wrinkling, this will look better then if it’s flat and perfect.

Cover your whole bottle/jar with tissue paper and glue.

Let dry.

Get creative with your potion bottle tops! I mainly used bouncy balls and beads and glued them on my tops with permanent glue. Paint with black acrylic paint. Here’s what they looked like before I painted them:

When everything dried, I added the tops and my final touches of twine and ribbons. I will explain what I did on every bottle below. For my Veritaserum bottle, I glued a bouncy ball to the lid and painted it black. I wrapped twine and hot glued it to the bottle’s neck.

Before and after:

The Polyjuice potion was made out of a smaller Starbucks bottle. I made the top the same way as the Veritaserum bottle.

Before and after:

After I made my first few bottles, I decided to make most of my potions bottles double sided, for more variety. This bottle is both Pegasus Pills and Seahorse Tails. Made from an empty soy sauce bottle, I added a layer of dollar store trim and a layer of velvet ribbon. The top has beads painted black.

The Swooping Evil Venom/Good Luck Potion bottle was made from a craft store bottle, with twine glued on with the hot glue gun.

The Brain Enhancing Elixir/Occamy Scales bottle was also a craft store bottle. The top has a bouncy ball ringed with beads glued on, painted black.

The Vampire Blood/Draught of Peace Bottle is another craft store bottle wrapped in twine and hot glued. These were probably the quickest to make.

The Wise Woman Blend/Snake Venom Jar is made from a tiny craft store jar. You can see I tried to cover this top with tissue paper and didn’t like how it looked, so this was the only time I used this technique. Twine was also hot glued.

The Octopus Ink/Flesh Eating Slug Repellant Jar is a craft store jar simply painted black on top.

The Veela Essence/Witch’s Brew was made from a bottle of rosewater toner and has a neck wrapped in two different ribbons and a top with beads glued to it painted black.

Before and after:

The Raven’s Blood/Wolfsbane jar came from an Ikea jar of fake lemons. I added a length of black velvet ribbon and beads to the top, painted black.

Before and after:

The Unicorn hair jar was originally a jar of pickles. I added hot glue to the edges of the jar lid. I then painted the jar black. Last I permanent glued a unicorn I had painted white to the lid. I wrapped the lid in twine and hot glued it.

The mermaid wish jar was originally hair conditioner. I added beads to the lid, painted it black, then painted a mermaid white and glued it on.

The Bat Wing jar was a craft jar. I glued a bouncy ball to the lid and painted it black.

The Amortentia jar is from a craft store. It was wrapped/hot glued with twine.

The Phoenix Ashes jar was the only one I made differently. I simply added the label and the twine to a perfume bottle, leaving out the tissue paper.

The Gillyweed/Elixir of Euphoria Jar was another bottle of rosewater toner. I added two layers of ribbon but different beads to the top before I painted it black.

Before and after:

The Expecto Patronum bottle was another craft store buy I hot glued twine to.

The Murtlap Essence/Toad Warts bottle is made from an Olaplex 3 bottle. Beads were added then painted black and a black velvet ribbon was glued to the lid.

Here are all the tissue paper potions bottles:

And here they are flipped so you can see the alternative label:

Add them to your displays and enjoy!

 

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