DIY Halloween Apothecary Jars (+ free printable labels) — Actually Alli

DIY apothecary jars for Halloween from Dollar Tree. From left to right: a purple jar with a label that says bone powder. A black jar with glitter inside that says blood of bat. A green jar filled with green beads that says pickled frog eggs. A black…

I have always thought Halloween apothecary jars were the cutest things and I’ve always wanted to make my own so this year for HalloWeek 2020, I decided to give it a go and I LOVE how these little jars turned out. They’re the right mix of spooky, cute and classy. Plus they are so fun to make.

I used mostly Dollar Tree items to make these jars, so that makes them extra affordable… and I’m including a free PDF download with 5 jar labels!

This post is a continuation from another post I made today, which is my other two Dollar Tree Halloween DIYs. You can watch a video tutorial on how to make these jars, plus the other two projects right under this sentence.

So to make these apothecary jars, you’re going to need these labels! The link will take you to Google Drive where you can print the labels for free and use on your own jars. There are five labels total, and I used four of them for my jars.

Download Jar Labels

First up, let’s talk about how I made the green and purple jars! I made these using Mod Podge and food coloring, and I think they turned out fantastic.

1) For the green jar, I mixed neon green food coloring and Mod Podge at the bottom of a recycled pickle jar and tipped and tilted the jar until all the sides were covered.

2) After the jar was coated, I removed the lid and placed it upside down on a baking tray covered in foil and wax paper.

3) For the purple jar, I mixed the Mod Podge and purple and pink food coloring in a plastic baggie and snipped off the tip to turn it into a piping bag. I repeated the same process as the other jar.

4) I flipped the jars right-side-up, then baked the jars in an oven preheated to 200 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes. Then let the jars completely cool inside the oven.

5) How I decorated the purple jar: First, I spray painted the purple jar with matte black spray paint to create a subtle gradient effect and let that dry. I made a makeshift funnel and filled the jar with baking soda to look like “bone powder,” since that was the label I chose. I made sure to glue to cork so no spills would happen. Then I glued a tiny skull to the top of the cork and added a jute twine bow around the neck of the jar.

13) For the green jar, I filled it with Dollar Tree styrofoam beads found in the craft section. I then cut out a square of canvas and glued it onto the lid and secured it with twine around the neck.

1) For this “blood of bat” jar, I painted the inside with this Dollar Tree iridescent glitter glue and let it dry. Once I thought the glue was dry, I put black Dollar Tree paint in the bottom of the jar and rotated it around just like I did on the Mod Podge jars.

2) I realized this method didn’t work very well and the glitter disappeared, so I instead put glitter glue and paint inside the jar, shook it up, and then dumped out the excess paint. I used a hair dryer to help the paint dry faster.

3) I then added the label to the front with Mod Podge and also hot glued a Dollar Tree bat ring (I cut the ring part off) to the top and painted it silver.