How to Make Apothecary Jars and FREE Printable Labels

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Get your Halloween decorating started by making your own spooky apothecary jars for Halloween with these FREE printable labels.

Apothecary Jars Hero

I have a confession.

I am a hoarder of glass bottles–any size, any color, any shape. Seriously, there is an entire cabinet in our kitchen dedicated to my hoards. When you are a hoarder of glass bottles, all that goes through your head are the endless possibilities of what new life those bottles could take on.

A few weeks ago my husband couldn’t take it any longer and asked me if I was finally going to do something with them, if not he was going to throw them out. My little heart sank, knowing that impending doom was coming to my hoards if my creative mind couldn’t come up with something to make them into.

Finally, the thought hit me! I know everyone has seen the cute (or creepy) apothecary jars floating around on Pinterest for Halloween. I am not big on decorating for Halloween, but once the idea of apothecary jars was in my head I couldn’t imagine some of those bottles being used for anything else.

My husband is a whiskey drinker, and I have been saving bottles for the last 2 years. I also save wine bottles because, well, wine bottles.  I used a few whiskey bottles, a wine bottle, a few bottles I used as decoration at our wedding reception, and a bottle I bought at Dollar Tree a few months ago.

Luckily I also hoard wine corks, so I had plenty of bottle stoppers to choose from.

How to Make  Apothecary Jars

What you’ll need:

First, you will want to wash the bottles really well, remove any labels, and let them dry completely.

Bottles Before

While the bottles dried after being washed and stripped of their labels, I went to PicMonkey to create my new apothecary jar labels. You can download these by subscribing below.

Subscribe below to get your free labels:

Next, I printed out the labels, and using double-sided tape, adhered them to the bottles. I like the double-sided tape because in my experience it comes off cleaner than using glue.

Halloween Apothecary jars

I filled the jars with different levels of water, and added food coloring to them for effect.  I even added cornstarch to some for a cloudy, turbid effect.

Bottle Collage

There you have it!  How to make your own apothecary jars. My husband got his wish of using up my hoards, and I got to be a little creative in the process.  I’d say that’s a win for both of us.

Check out these other Halloween DIY ideas:

Wife to a computer nerd, mom to a neurotic dog and lover of all things baking, creating and making. She's not afraid to get messy or fire up a power tool and she has yet to meet a dessert she hasn't liked.

44 Comments

  3. I subscribed to get free apothecary labels but still can’t find a place to download them….can you help? Project for my classroom!

    Reply

  7. Thank you so much for the spooky labels exactly what I was looking for!! I’m trying to make a spooky house for the grandkids.

    Reply

  11. I just subscribed so I could get the printable labels for my apothecary jars. It is such a CUTE idea. However, after subscribing I cannot find where to get the labels. Please help.

    Thank you, Crystle

    Reply

    1. Hi Lacy, It looks like you’ve opened and clicked on the link to the subscriber library from the email that was sent yesterday, which is where the labels are. Can you please let me know what issues you are still facing?

      Reply

      1. Hi! I subscribed to the newsletter, but can not find where I can download these amazing labels! Please help 🙂

        Reply

        1. Hi Victoria. I see that you have subscribed but you have not opened the email with the library link and password. It’s possible the email went to your Junk, Spam or Promotions folder. Please let me know if you still have trouble!

          Reply

    1. Hi Donna,
      You’ll need to subscribe to the email list, in the blue box toward the middle of the post. Then you’ll be sent the link to the subscriber library where you can download the printables.

      Reply

    1. Hi Brittania! You were sent an email with the instructions and it looks like you have not opened it yet. It’s possible your email went to the Junk or Promotions folder in gmail.

      Reply

  21. Your labels look FANTASTIC!!
    But….. THEY must’ve updated the app bc I Can’t use any of the directions you posted.
    I don’t see themes or anything. Plz help 🙁

    Reply

    1. Hi Jessica. Sorry for the trouble, but yes PicMonkey recently (within the last month) updated their app. You have to set up an account with them now to use the new features. I explained more in the tutorial for the labels themselves. Good news is that you can still download these exact ones for FREE just by subscribing to my email list in the blue box!

      Reply

  22. Amanda, these are great! Your printable labels are perfect! I don’t do lots of decorating for Halloween either, but these would look great on display at our Halloween party. Pinned.

    Reply
  23. Pingback: DIY Halloween Decorations - two purple couches

  26. I did something similar but because my kids love to pick up and admire decorative items, I used colored glass paint on the inside of the bottles (Just roll them to evenly coat the inside at whatever height you want your liquid to end up at, and repeat as necessary until the paint is dry). Same effect, no spills to clean up. And it looks great in my ‘Mad Scientist’ display.

    Reply

  27. Hey Amanda I saw these and hoped they were on the Spooktacular Party! Love them! Great printables! Stopping by to let you know you were my feature pick for the Halloween Spooktacular party! Sharing to day on social media! Have a great weekend!
    Kim

    Reply

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