I have a confession to make. I'm 51-years-old and have just now discovered Harry Potter. I knew about the fandom insanity swirling around book and movie premiers, but I didn't pay much attention at the time. That was until last fall when I discovered how many credits I had on my Audible account. How about a book series? Harry Potter? M'kay, why not? *poof*
Damn you, J.K. Rowling! I'm hooked. I'm completely obsessed with the whole Potter world. I love the books and movies and can't wait to throw a Hogwarts party. I'm like a dog with a bone when I get obsessed about something immersing myself completely and love to use these inspirations in my creations.
Part of the charm of the stories is how creative the fan base can be; it's a lot like Doctor Who in that respect. I love the crafts that have been inspired from all the HP stories and, of course, I want to try them all! I've started making wands (I'll post later) and because I've been wanting to do some altered bottles, a potions cabinet was a must to create.
First, I had to find a shelf. Thrift shops usually have some sort of shallow, spice cabinet shelves hanging around, so I was off to Goodwill and found this:
This dusty old "bath" shelf fit the bill with its sturdy construction and great cubby storage for all those cool potions.
A quick coat of black acrylic paint and it's looking better already. The "bath" plaque had to be disguised, though.
A rummage through my workroom and I found the perfect brass stamping from B'Sue Boutiques. Large, Victorian and the perfect thing to cover the "bath" applique. I used black gilder's paste on the brass to bring out all the wonderful detail. I also had these Tim Holtz labels hanging around so I used those, too. If they look a little wonky it's not your eyes. The labels had this sort of channel looking thing sticking out the back and I needed them to be flush with the shelf. I ended up bending them out and using them as part of the design since the damn channels would NOT be cut off. It makes them look more "rustic", right?. Ahem.
Time to work on some bottles! If you do a search on Pinterest for "Harry Potter, Potion, Bottles, Labels, Free Printables", you'll squee with delight at the variety! I love them all and thought this set was so cool as it had some color and aging already done in the design. It does take some time to cut these out and you want to take care to leave off any white space around the labels.
Potion bottles coming together! I didn't take pictures of how I did this, but I used decoupage glue to labels to the bottles and covered the entire bottles with the glue. On some bottles, I painted on top of the glue once it dried to give texture and aging to the surface.
Again, do a Pinterest search for "cheap bottles" and you'll get some great results! Of course, the other option is to recycle old spice, vinegar and condiment bottles. I wanted some amber colored bottles, so I got my supplies from Specialty Bottle
I added some embellishments on the bottles, found some other fun stuff to use with the cabinet including a brass key, one of the wands I'm working on and an old moon and stars pin that has a great patina. Time to put it all together... looking pretty good, but it needs a back, I'm thinking!
Again, I didn't take pictures, but I did a measurement of the back, cut out cardboard, decoupaged the dictionary paper on the back and attached to the shelf. Snazzy!
So there you have it! An apothecary fit for Severus Snape! I did some final touches on the bottles, added caps, cracked marbles and more embellishments on some of the smaller bottles. I'm really pleased with how this turned out and I can't wait to use it for the party!
Brass stamping detail. I used black gilder's paste to bring out the awesome detail. You'll also see a peek of a wand I'm working on. This one is made from an oversized chopstick!
Some more detail on the bottles. Potter peeps will get the "R" on the Wolf's Bane bottle. Hee hee! Oh, and is that a painted, repurposed iPhone box? Why, yes it is! Look how fancy!
More bottle close ups. Happy accident on the "Polyjuice" bottle. The label when I was decoupaging had lifted the image leaving white. It was too big to leave, so I started coloring in with a black marker. The image started to look like a cat (which if you know the story about Hermione, you'll understand how cool that is!). I liked the metal "altered" tag, too. That's a Peruvian skull bead on the dried spider vial and a cracked marble on the truth serum.
Before and After. Cooh, huh?
So there you have it. I hope you've enjoyed watching this transformation and think about doing one yourself! I would love to see your creations!
Thanks for reading and leave me a comment and links to your work. x