Welcome to Day 24 of the 31 Days of Halloween!
Ok, so I know I say this a lot, but I am pretty sure that this skull bottle is one of my favorite things I’ve ever made.
Seriously, how awesome is that? I am in love.
This is one of those things that totally does not look like I made it myself, and I am crazy proud of it. And even better, it’s so amazingly easy to make!
I got the inspiration from this from Lindsey at Better After. {Side note: do you read her blog? It’s seriously one of my favorites ever. Lindsey is beyond words hilarious, and I kind of want to be her BFF.}.
Anyway, she shared a tutorial recently for altered Halloween books, and it was amazing. In it, she mentioned that a friend of hers used the same technique on bottles, and it worked beautifully. So I decided to give it a shot.
Luckily, we happened to have a perfectly shaped whiskey bottle lying around. {See? Drinking alcohol is totally beneficial. Yay, liquor!} I also picked up a cute little styrofoam skull from Michael’s.
Now, let me start by saying two things. First, this is one of those projects where, as you’re making it, you’re going to be all “What the whaaa?? This is never going to work, I ruined everything.” I promise you, you didn’t. When you get done, you will buck right up and realize that you are actually awesome, and so is your bottle.
Second, I was so excited to get this project done that I may or may not have forgotten to take pictures of most of the steps. My bad, yo. But it’s so easy, you really don’t need to see the steps.
Anyhoo. Get your bottle and a paper towel. Yeah, a paper towel. You want one that’s not embossed with pretty little flowers or something. Just a plain, old, generic paper towel. If it’s 2-ply, separate it, because you want it to be thin. {You could also use tissue paper if your paper towel is too fancy pants.} Dampen your paper towel and wring it out. You just want it to be damp, not soaked.
Take some mod podge, slather it all over your bottle, and stick on your paper towel. Now, this is one of those steps I warned you about where you think: “What the heck am I doing? This looks horrendous.” Hang in there, I promise. You want to have some wrinkles in there, so don’t try to make it perfect. If it rips, whatever, just smoosh it back together. Cover both sides of your bottle with paper towel, and then let it dry completely. Overnight would be best, but it should be dry in a few hours.
Now, this would be where I got so excited that I forgot to keep taking pictures. Whoops. Just bear with me, it’s not really that complicated. I’ll toss in some of the “after” photos to help you see what I’m talking about.
Take your skull and use a serrated knife to cut his face off. {<— One of the weirder and creepier sentences I’ve ever written.} Don’t worry if it’s not perfect, it doesn’t have to be. Hot glue that bad boy onto the front of your bottle.
Next, hit the whole thing with some flat black spray paint. Make sure you cover everything.
Finally, to add the metallic finish, I used Rub ‘n Buff in antique gold. This was my first time using Rub ‘n Buff, and I was a little nervous, but this stuff is really cool. Just squeeze some out onto your finger and then rub it wherever you want. I wanted to really bring out the skull, so I went to town on him, but for the rest of the bottle, I just kind of rubbed it on randomly.
And that, my friends, is all there is to it. Like I said, this is definitely one of my favorite projects ever. It’s so cool and creepy looking, and it was SO much easier than it looks.
I am totally going to try the altered books next. I love this technique!!
If you missed any of the previous 31 Days of Halloween, you can see them all here!
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That is so cool. I might make one to take to the Halloween party next weekend, haha, my own little creepy container. Thanks for sharing and happy Saturday!
Thanks so much, Leslie! You could totally do this with a bottle that’s full — just keep the paint and rub ‘n buff off the top! Ooh… now I think I’m going to have to make another one for the Halloween party we’re going to! 😉
That is absolutely amazing!!! When I first saw it I thought, there is not way that is homemade. It looks so expensive! I love it!!! I am going to have to make it too. Could you tell me approximately how much you spent on it? Between the rub and buff, paint, glue gun, the skull,,,,,just wondering if it is worth it to make just one. But really I love how it looks! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks, Rebecca! The only things I bought for this were the rub ‘n buff and the skull, because I had everything else on hand. The rub ‘n buff is around $4.50 at Michael’s, but I used a 40% off coupon, so it was around $2.75 or so. I think the skull was around $1, also at Michael’s. So for me, the cost was less than $5. If you don’t have a glue gun, you could use Gorilla Glue or E6000 too, it would just take longer to dry. If you make one, I’d love to see it!
This is beyond awesome! I have a question though. How durable is it? Once completed and dried, will the paper towel rip or become worn if handled? Thanks for such a clever idea!
Is the rub and buff stuff safe to use on a container for food/drink?
Hi Pedro! I am not 100% sure, but I don’t think it is safe for food. To be safe, I would keep it away from surfaces that would touch your food or your mouth.
Did you protect it after you finished?? with modge podge or something?
Very cool btw.
WOW………..that is just BRILLIANT! I love it…..well done you!… totally looks shop bought!
This was a great tutorial and so easy to follow! I ended up using tacky glue because it’s what I had on hand and have used the technique to cover plastic and glass alike! It helped hide some of the groves from screw cap bottles when I wanted to use a cork or stopper instead of a cap. I even made a rusty box by doing a brown base coat and adding smears of orange instead of a metallic paint. Thanks so much for sharing!
Does it have to be a bottle shaped like that? Or can you use any bottle?
If you’re just going to do the altered bottle, you can use any bottle, but one that’s flat on the side will probably be best if you’re going to attach something like a skull.
So i gave this a try and everything went ok till sprayed it with the flat black. It metled the Styrofoam skull. What did i do wrong?
I was told that latex paint is what you have to use on styrofoam. Regular paint melts stryofoam. Not sure why that wasn’t mentioned before. I’ve been reading and pondering trying this out and my husband mentioned that tidbit to me. So that’s what I’ll be sticking with if I do try it.