Handmade Reviews: Boo Bottles from InstaCraft

Boo bottles from Instacraft (1 of 1)

Looking for a quick craft? A cute craft? A kid-friendly craft?

InstaCraft, given to me by Ulysses Press, has become my kiddos’ and my go-to reference when we’re looking for something fast and easy to fill up a Sunday morning or a rainy afternoon with a little color. InstaCraft has teeny-tiny tutorials for super-quick projects, and most of them, such as the chess jars, the cookie cutter frames, the brick bookends, or these boo bottles, upcycle materials that you’ve already got on hand.

The projects are also really easy to alter, so you don’t have to make a trip to the crafts store to make anything and you can exchange more eco-friendly materials for some of the supplies. For instance, these boo bottles, made from upcycled glass bottles, call for spray paint, which I did use for two of them, but one of those three up there has been hand-painted with regular acrylic paint to avoid the aerosol. Can you tell which one has been hand-painted?

It’s the one on the right. You totally couldn’t tell!

Boo bottles from Instacraft (5 of 5)To make this boo bottle project a little more kid-friendly, you can hand your kids black acrylic paint and a small paintbrush to create the luminary’s face, instead of the black Sharpie called for in the tutorial. My kiddos get frustrated trying to fill in areas with marker–it takes too long, the lines are uneven, whine whine whine—but they were perfectly happy to outline their faces using Sharpie and then fill them in with paint, just like coloring in a coloring book.

Boo bottles from Instacraft (1 of 5)To save even having to paint a face on, I stenciled a face onto the middle Jack-o-lantern by cutting it out of painter’s tape, sticking it onto the clean glass bottle, and then painting on the orange paint. When the paint was dry and I peeled off the painter’s tape, I had a perfect Jack-0-lantern face for my candle to shine through, just like a real Jack-o-lantern.

Speaking of candles… Do be confident that the glass jar that you’re upcycling into a luminary can handle having a candle flame. I’ve never had a jar break because of the heat of a candle inside it, and I’ve made some CRAZY choices for luminaries and candle holders before, but don’t come back blaming me if you make a choice even crazier than mine and your glass cracks. I told you to be careful!

NOTE: I received a free copy of Instacraft, because I can’t write about a book until I’ve accidentally spray painted myself in the face while making a project from it. That little arrow on top of the spray paint nozzle should point AWAY from you!

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Scroll to Top