There is something about antique bottles at this time of the year. I guess people just find them spooky. Any good witch knows that apothecary bottles are not scary at all… but actually little treasures… Alas, it’s Halloween season, and the masses are calling! This year, instead of the ever so popular potion bottles, I decided to take a bit of a twist from the norm and create Antique Embalming Fluid Bottles.
Whenever I plan an event, whether it’s an all out bash, or quaint dinner party, I always have a theme in mind as I prepare all of the details. Sometimes, it’s as simple as a color story.. sometimes it’s more complicated. In most cases, I’m inspired by one small detail, and let my imagination take over from there! A few weeks ago, I found some Skeleton feet while out shopping. After a bit of deliberation, I decided to follow the success of the Skeleton Hand Place Card Holders, and do the same with the skeleton feet. Only this time, I created Toe Tags as the Seating Cards. From there, the entire Toe Tag Inspired Dinner Party took shape!
I had an idea to put a vintage embalming fluid bottle at each place setting filled with what eventually became my Embalming Fluid Punch… sort of a personal carafe of punch for each guest. Sadly, as I worked on this project, I realized that the distressed painting on the bottles washes off immediately with any contact to water.. which meant that I’d never be able to wash these bottles after the party.. either that, or I’d have to throw these one time use bottles away. At the time, I had put too much time & energy into figuring out how to create the labels, and I wasn’t willing to throw my hard work away… so I set wine glasses at each place setting, filled an antique decanter full of Embalming Fluid Punch, and saved these bottles for some very appropriate (or inappropriate depending on how you look at it) dinner party decor.
Luckily for you… I went through the trials and tribulations so you didn’t have to… and this project actually is extremely simple…. so if you’d like to make them for one night and toss them, I still think they’d be cute at a place setting..
What you’ll need to create the labels:
- White Craft Vinyl
- Printer
- Polycrylic Spray (for ink jet printers)
- Glass Bottle
- Acrylic Paint – Black, Brown, Beige, Grey
- Paint Brush
- Paper Towels
1. Select your label images. I googled Embalming Fluid, and selected a few images of the Vintage Bottles I found. I used Adobe Photoshop to crop the images, but if you don’t have that program.. not to worry. You can either crop the images in your Cricut Design Space or simply print as is, and cut around the labels. Just be sure to measure your bottles and resize the images accordingly.
2. Print your label images. My original plan was to use the Print & Cut feature of my Cricut Explorer. This was my first time. I should admit … I did not realize that the Cricut did not actually do any of the printing. I had imagined that it would all be done in one magical fluid step… I was wrong. Instead I had to calibrate my Cricut Explorer to work with my printer. This step SUCKED. This was another one of those hair pulling, punch throwing, wrist slitting adventures that Cricut likes to throw my way occasionally. It’s not to say every Cricut -Printer pairing will be as tough to calibrate… but a word of warning: Calibrate your Cricut machine now… before you are in an impatient tizzy to finish a project!
As a part of the Print & Cut feature, you must print your artwork on your printer. I cut a piece of letter size vinyl, and printed my image. I have an ink jet printer. I was initially horrified at the way an ink jet printer leaves pools of ink on the vinyl… but later began to appreciate the fact that it actually made the labels look a bit more antique.
3. The ink on vinyl will smudge….. badly. Do not touch it. Once dry, spray the images with a layer of polycrylic spray. Allow to dry, and repeat 2 more times.
4. Cut the image. If your Cricut is perfectly calibrated, and you’d rather use it to cut your labels, go for it. Since I had so much trouble, I gave up and choose to cut the labels out by hand… yes the old fashioned way. In hindsight, I didn’t end up needing my cricut or design space at all. I could’ve just printed straight to vinyl from photoshop! oh well!
5. This next step depends on your method of applying the label. If you’re using transfer tape to apply the label, then I encourage you to add the label first, and then distress the bottle. I wouldn’t want the transfer tape to remove any of the distressing. If you’re just sticking it on by hand like me… let’s move on to the fun part…. creating the antiqued bottles…
First, you need an array of glass drinking bottles. I went to Whole Foods and picked up a variety of shapes and sizes… Bonus – I got to try a few new drinks! I happen to own a Vintage bottle of Embalming Fluid, so I knew these bottles were roughly the correct size.
6. Clean & dry the bottles. Ensure all labels and glue are completely removed.
7. Using a paintbrush and a mix of the paint colors, brush the paint all over the bottle. Wait for a few seconds, and wipe the paint off with a paper towel. Another way to apply the antiqued look is to wet a paper towel….dip it into a mix of paint colors, and wipe the bottle with the watered down colors. The latter gives more of an opaque film to the bottle, whereas the first method leaves more of an old dirty streak look. I used both methods. I painted each of the drink lids by blotting on different colors of the paint.
8. If you haven’t already applied the label, you can add it now. Then re-apply the method of paint over the label, again wiping away…. this gives the appearance that the label has aged right along with the bottle. You may have wondered why I didn’t just add the label from the beginning. I played around with the distressing techniques on my bottles, and eventually choose the bottles I liked the best, and added the labels to those. What can I say.. I’m a perfectionist!
If you’d like to use these bottles simply as props like I do, you can fill with food color tinted water. If you haven’t read the article on the punch recipe, you may be be interested to learn that many Embalming fluids have red dye added in order to give corpses a rosy life-like hue. The bottles I have pictured have a combo of red and/or yellow drops. If those personal carafes are your thing, then fill these suckers up with your favorite party drink, and let the festivities begin!!
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