Pantry Potions: Supermarket Sorcery

When inspiration hits, using supplies already in the pantry means not only savings but seriously cuts down on prop making prep time.   Warehouse-style food and supply stores allow you to buy in quantities that cover both your cooking/cleaning and crafting needs.

Here I've consolidated a list of techniques utilizing common household items.  There's all sorts of info online on each - videos, variations on recipes, etc.  Experiment and find the one that's right for you.  And please share the results and other recipes from your book of spells.

14 days till Halloween...

Technique: Antiquing Wood
Needs: Steel Wool or SOS Pads, tea, coffee
Most of the info out there will tell you SOS Pads don't work.  I disagree so I'm linking my own post about this technique and you can decide for yourself which is "better."

SOS Pad on the left, Steel Wool on the right

Technique: Rusting Metal
Needs: White Vinegar, Salt
Did this for the first time this year and it's just fascinating.  Science and art, doesn't get much better.

Technique: Staining/Aging Natural Fibers
Needs: Tea, Coffee, Pomegranate, Turmeric, Beets, Wine, Baking Chocolate, Soy Sauce, Salt
Prepping the fabric is key.  After that, it's really up to you what recipe you go with.  Tea, coffee, chocolate and soy sauce lead to browns and tans.  Beets, Wine & Pomegranate various reds.  Turmeric a bold yellow.  I like to leave coffee grounds & chocolate clumped up in areas to create darker spots & more nuance.  Be sure to thoroughly wet the fabric before and add salt to the dye bath if you're using cotton.  All of these work well on wood as well.  Age some planks and add some "blood" stains with wine, beets or pomegranate for a battle beleaguered ship deck.

Coffee, tea, chocolate, turmeric

Technique: Dried, Scabby Blood

Needs: Corn starch, corn syrup, onion flakes, red food coloring

Cake this up on gardening and work tools for October, wash off for the boring non-Halloween months.  Looks great, easy to make and easy to clean up.

Technique: Fake blood
Needs: Corn syrup, chocolate syrup, red food coloring
Mix in other things like peanut butter or oatmeal to change up the consistency depending on your needs

Technique: Aging Bottles
Needs: Corn starch, corn syrup, white vinegar
Basically you're making glue.  Use sandpaper to scratch up the sides of the glass bottle or jar.  Paint on your homemade glue mixture, whipping off when it's still tacky.  Mix in coffee grounds or dirt for an extra grimy effect or stain with Turmeric for yellow or beets/pomegranate for red.

Pantry Potion: Antiquing Wood - Steel Wool vs. SOS Pads

There's a lot of information and how-to's on antiquing wood using vinegar and steel wool.  It's a really cool trick that's cheap and easy with simple household items - the perfect DIY project.

All the info out there concurs one critical point - SOS Pads don't work as well. Some will straight up tell you they DON'T work and not to use them.

Funny thing, SOS Pads are all I had ever used.  I guess the first tutorial I used years ago didn't mention this fact or I overlooked it.  If memory serves - which it often doesn't - they may have actually used an SOS Pad as I have vague memories of a picture of that easily identifiable blue pad sitting in a jar of vinegar.

Regardless, I needed to antique some wood for my Gothic Window and that's when I came upon all the SOS Pad warnings and chuckled.  All my crates look rad if you ask me.  Could there really be that much of a difference?  Time for an experiment.

Before we begin, the basic antiquing recipe:   Fill a jar with white vinegar and plop steel wool inside.  Let it sit.  An hour or weeks, whatever.  The longer the murkier the liquid will get but honestly this works after a few hours, too.  Then you just "paint" the liquid on using either a paint brush or the pad itself.  Wear gloves, this stuff gets messy.

The recipes all call for some tea as well.  I let loads of bags sit for a long time in a separate container, sometimes even adding coffee grounds.  Since I'm going for creepy crate vs wine crate it doesn't have to be perfect.

One note of caution with the SOS Pad: the blue soap can clump and stick to spot leaving blue stains.  Use the tea/coffee solution to water these areas down and disperse/diminish the blue.

I like to do a base of the vinegar/pad solution and let that dry.  After that, it's the perfect science of slop a little of either or both, just let it go and feel it.  Become one with the crate.

On the left, we have the SOS Pad crate and on the right, the Steel Wool Crate.  Here we are after the first coat of solution.  Having never done a pure steel wool one I was blown away with how fast it works!  It gets dark FAST.  Which is cool especially if you're going for more of a wine crate look.  I did the SOS Pad one first so it's been sitting for about 20 minutes when I took this photo:

Pretty crazy, right?  Almost looks like I haven't done anything to the one on the left.  I meant to take a "before" picture but my 3 year old daughter made a mad dash from her bedroom, out the backdoor and then down the driveway which, big surprise, distracted me every so slightly.  My apologies, would have been nice to have a baseline.  Next time.

After a while I came back and did another coat to the SOS pad as well as some tea to both.  The Steel Wool crate was pretty well stained at that point so I wasn't able to have as much fun creating irregularities with it.  I probably should have gone back and forth between tea and vinegar solution on the first coat.  

I did one final coat on the SOS pad one, just finishing off the liquid and added tea as well.  I did another round on the steel wool one as well trying to layer it up in some areas to create greater depth.

Left them overnight and the final result....?

You can absolutely antique wood with an SOS pad.  They're almost identical with the SOS pad leaving the crate a greyish brown and the steel wool creating a deep reddish brown.

I prefer the look of the SOS Pad.  I think it works far better for a haunted house as it's less "winery wedding" and more "witch's storage."  Whatever you wind up using at least now you know you have options and an SOS pad isn't steel wool's less crafty sibling.

Which crate do you prefer?

(in this light you can hardly tell them apart)

(Such a subtle difference)

(the end of the SOS crate didn't take the solution as well this time, but who can tell at night?)

UPDATE!!!

It's now been 3 days and the difference is even more pronounced.  The SOS Pad has deepened it's grey/brown color all over while the steel wool one is more red toned than ever.  Perhaps it's an illusion but there you go, can we just admit that and SOS pad not only works but also looks killer?!?

The difference is crazy! (SOS on left, Steel Wool on right)