A Witches Apothecary

Well the fall and soon to be Halloween seasons is upon us.....love the cooler weather, the trees, the decorating, the food....everything about the season.....including my 46th wedding anniversary in October!  I have been working on this project for quite a while, a little here and a little there.  I won't deny it--it was labor intensive but so rewarding in the end.  I was inspired by Laura Carson of Artfully Amusing.  She did one of these last year.  Hers was more creative than mine as she even made the shelf.  This year she is doing a Halloween carnival with rides, ticket booth, everything. Please check out  her blog as her work is amazing.  This was a wooden bowl shelf my daughter Kathy was getting rid of.  Hubby painted it black and I was good to go.  I'll show you a few shots of the whole shebang and then some pics of individual sections.  I had trouble, for some reason, getting a good pic of the center top shelf where there is a plaque that reads "Member of the Black Hat Society."  Also I am making a few small witches books to tuck in here and there but they're not done yet.

I'll tell you a little about the props and how this went together before the pics.  I collected the bottles over a period of time.  Michaels has quite a few nice ones with corks.  My daughter Sara contributed the two green Jagermeister beer bottles. Some were Yankee candle jars and the small ones were Tim Holtz. If you want to make one of these, olive jars, olive oil and vinagrete bottles, horseradish, small conditments, candle jars etc are great.  The craft stores including Mikes are selling already tinted bottles but they are like $3.99 each.  Too expensive for my blood when other jars are reading available which won't break the bank.  There are plenty of sources online for free labels.  I tried to pick ones where I could think of something to put in the bottle that resembled the label. The little chipboard coffin, from Mikes or JoAnns actually  has moss and a small skeleton inside. The test tubes are Martha Stewart that I had laying around from a few years ago.  The craft stores still carry them.  Mice, snakes, teeth, stone buttons for dragon scales, tiny dried pumpkins for Spawn of Jacko Lanterns, dust from the vaccum for Corpse Dust etc.  One or two bottles I actually filled with tinted water but I was afraid to go that route for all of them because I'm not sure how they will hold up in the long run. If icky mold shows up next year, they will go in the trash.   I used coffee filters for the jars with the paper tops, died in coffee and walnut crystals and tied on with twine and wire.  Then I used beeswax melted in my melting pot and brushed on and dripped down the jars.  The little teeth prop has a label that says "hemlock dentrifice."  I must note that the teeth, which were from JoAnns are VERY lifelike, including the tartar!  Also the $1 store is a great source for hair, rubber mice, bugs, scorpions, eyeballs etc. If anyone has any questions about technique or the products used, please email me.  I am glad to answer any questions.  Here we go! Click on images to see a larger picture.