DIY HOMEMADE, CREEPY APOTHECARY JARS!

This is another diy from lifeartcollide.blogspot.com . What an ingenious person this is. Just wanted to share another great thing to make.

Homemade Apothecary Jars

How much fun was it to make my own set of creepy apothecary jars! They are going to look amazing on my Halloween treat table this year. I've put together a little bit of a How-To for anybody who wants the basics on how to make their own apothecary jars. Get your family involved in this fun Halloween project, you'll have a great time filling jars...just keep your eye on Grampa's teeth or they may end up in one!

GATHER YOUR SUPPLIES

Keep your eyes open for all types of jars! Start by looking at home you’d be surprised what you’ll find hiding in your kitchen cupboards and medicine cabinet. Other great sources: Dollar stores, garage sales, home décor centers, kitchen supply outlets, recycling centers and second hand stores.

Try using candy jars, home canning jars, perfume bottles, wine bottles, liqueur bottles, food coloring bottles, jam jars, and olive oil bottles.

Now gather up some creepy crawly nasty bits of fun to put inside your jars. This time of year is great for finding discounts in the fishing sections of sporting good stores or local department stores. Look for grubs, minnows, leeches and frogs. BEWARE don’t buy the scented varieties...they smell like rancid fish oil!

Spirit Halloween stores also carry bags of mice, cockroaches, worms, bats...etc.

Take a trip through your variety stores for things that might look fun inside a jar like rubber frogs, lizards and snakes. Black flies, spiders cockroaches and mice all work great. Skulls, small skeletons, fangs, false teeth and eyeballs look very freaky squeezed into jars. Peek around outside for leaves, twigs, seed pods, butterfly wings and dandelion fluff ...let your imagination go wild!

Other supplies to gather would include: twine, corks, beeswax, tea bags, alchohol inks, labels, non-bleachedcoffee filters and brown florist tape (shown here, available at Michaels):

THE HOW-TO

Squeeze your ghoulish goodies inside the jars. Fill your jars with tap water. The water can be tinted with food coloring, tea or alcohol based inks or use olive oil by itself. Slide a wooden skewer or knife around the objects in the jar to release trapped air bubbles. Secure the lid or push in the cork depending on the container being used. If the bottle does not have the original cork, new corks can be purchased at some craft stores or wine bottlers. Carve down the new cork with a knife to make a tight fit in the bottle.

Wrap a portion of the cork and bottle neck with brown florist’s tape to mimic a wax seal.

Wrap with jute secured with white glue. Brush the cork, florist tape and twine with melted beeswax. I melt my beeswax by placing it in an old glass bowl then I place that dish into my slow-cooker (used just for this purpose) set on high. This is my method, I'm sure there are other ways out there on the net.

For large jars wrap a brown (non-bleached) coffee filter over the top and secure with jute. Brush the entire coffee filter with melted beeswax. The wax will whiten with age as the years pass thus adding to the aged effect.