Halloween is a fun time of year for kids and adults. In some households, a lot of planning goes into the Halloween decor and costumes. 

This year I made Halloween Bottles.  In other words, I drank the wine and decorated the bottles in a Halloween theme.  A nice cheap way to get unique Halloween home decor. You can use any bottle for this project I used a vinegar bottle and a couple of wine bottles. I tried a few methods while making these Halloween bottles all with a totally different unique look.

The kids get all excited about going trick or treating in their Halloween costumes and the adults use it as an excuse to dress up and have a party.  And no party would be complete without Halloween decor. This Halloween mirror was quick and easy to make check out the tutorial.

This post was for the IBC Challenge, let me quickly tell you a little about the IBC (Int’l Bloggers Club). Every month a group of bloggers, from around the world, come together to create something using a common theme.  This month it was Halloween and next month it will be flannel.  So make sure to pop back and see what this creative group of bloggers come up with next.  Other entries to the challenge are listed at the end of this post.

How to repurpose a wine bottle

Find a bottle

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It is really surprising how popular painting wine bottles have become.  I saw them by chance while browsing Pinterest and it was love at first sight.  My first bottle was a Game of thrones lamp which was so popular, I used that idea for my Halloween bottles.  Use any bottle that you can find around the house.  After doing these 4 bottles I would recommend removing the labels before you start. 

Add some texture

To get the texture on the bottles I used materials I found around the house.  For this bottle, I used cheap craft glue from a budget store and cheap serviettes.  Any paper will work even toilet paper if you are short of ideas. Using a brush add a layer of glue to the surface of the bottle.  Wrap the paper tissue around the bottle.  Then add another layer of glue, I repeated this step for a more textured look. 

I used plastic mesh from an onion bag, rope, burlap fabric and corrugated cardboard which was packing material. You don’t have to be perfect when doing this step, just randomly add bits of each to the bottle.  I have personally found the more random I do the bottles the better they look.

I used craft glue to attach all the textures in place and used a hairdryer to speed up the drying process. Once everything is dry it is time to paint the surface with black gesso or black acrylic paint.  I use gesso because it was what I had at home. 

Adding wax paste

Coloured wax pastes were used to jazz up the black paint on the bottles. I bought 2 colours which I found was not enough colour.  I made my own coloured wax pastes which worked as well as the store-bought waxes. You need the smallest amount of wax paste to add colour.  Using your finger which works best, dip your finger in the wax and wipe the wax randomly over the surface of the black paint.

When you rub your finger over the surface of the painted bottle try not to fill in all the nooks and crannies.  You only want the wax on the surface only, which gives you a beautiful effect. 

Add some elements to your Halloween bottle

Now it is time to add some fun elements to your Halloween bottle.  No Halloween theme would be complete without some spiders.  I used a cheap pack I bought from Kmart. and randomly glued them onto my bottle. And used a hot glue gun to add a look of melted wax to the surface.  I did order candles for this purpose but the wax evaporated once it melted.  Old style candles work great for this.

I made a sugar skull using a silicone mould I had a home and some plaster. These can be bought, but I did not want to wait for one to be delivered.  This plaster dries in about 10 minutes even quicker if you use a hairdryer.  Once dry, paint the sugar skull with the black gesso and add your wax colours or acrylic paints.

I used some cheap plastic mirror which was ordered from China and when they arrived they were tiny.  There was no way they could be used on the wall but they were perfect for my Halloween bottles. I found a free image on the internet and printed it out on waterslide paper and transferred it to the plastic mirrors. To see the full method of how to transfer using waterslide paper check out this Halloween Mirror. 

The other embellishments on the bottles were bits and bobs I found laying around at home. A great source for small twigs is a grapevine if you have one. I used wood studs, bits of jewellery and painted them all with black gesso and added the coloured wax paste. You can always add and remove items until you are happy with the look.  And if you don’t like the look add a coat of black gesso and start again. 

Adding fabric to a bottle

Adding fabric to a bottle is a great look too. There are many fabric stiffeners on the market but they can be pricey.  I loved the effect but did not want the expense. I used Elmer’s glue and some scrap rags from my workshop.  Any fabric will work.  Add a thick layer of Elmer’s glue to the bottle and add the scraps of fabric.

Using your fingers push the fabric up making creases, then add another layer of glue.  Leave the glue to dry or use a hairdryer to speed up the process. This will give dimension to the bottle.  You can repeat this step until you are happy with the look. You can then add textures (Cardboard, burlap, mesh) like the bottles above.

Vinyl Decal Halloween Bottle

 I used some vinyl Halloween decals which were randomly added to the surface of the bottle.  Being a Halloween bottle I went for a sugar skull theme and added a few spiders, bats and webs. All the vinyl decals were made using a Cricut vinyl cutter.

I added some flowers to the neck of this bottle just to made it different from the other two bottles.  My artificial flowers around the house had to sacrifice a flower to these bottles.  I made a flower using some shells from pistachio nuts, which were glued together with a hot glue gun. The flower was painted with copper spray paint because I was too lazy to paint each shell. 

Then followed the same steps as the Halloween bottles above. Paint with black gesso and add a very light layer of bronze wax paste to the whole bottle. Then add another layer to the surface of the decals only.  This will make the graphics of the decals stick out more.

The intention was to use cork lights in these bottles but still waiting for my delivery.  

The flowers were all painted black and sprayed with shimmer spray.

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