How to Reuse Empty Prescription Bottles for Gag Gifts

Add humorous instructions to the pill bottle's label for added laughs.
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Prescription pill bottles, paired with far more docile fillers such as candies, serve as homemade gag gifts customized to suit your friends, family members or even co-workers. When coming up with a label for the silly surprise, be sure to include wording about what's actually in the bottle, so the recipient knows exactly what he's getting.

1 Pre-Packaging Preparation

Before filling prescription bottles with tasty treats, remove the old labels and wash the bottles and lids thoroughly. Residue from the original contents may coat the bottles or the undersides of the lids, so cleaning is a necessity. Wash both bottles and lids a second time for extra assurance. If the old labels peel off in one piece, measure them to determine the ideal size for new labels; otherwise, cut a piece of paper and wrap it around a bottle, continually trimming it until the size seems correct for a label. Measure it and purchase sticker sheets in a similar size to run through a printer, or just print your homemade labels on regular paper and use clear packing tape to apply it to the bottles.

2 Age Assistance

Help make fun of a loved one or colleague's monumental birthdays, such as a 40th or 50th birthday, with a bottle of anti-aging pills. Use candy-coated licorice for capsule-shaped candies, or fill the bottle with candy-coated chocolates in a cheery color such as red, green or yellow to imply youthfulness and energy. For a co-worker's 21st birthday, create a label for "instant maturity pills" that make him look or act more like an adult. Fill the bottle with blue or white candy lozenges or mints. Whichever type of candy treat is placed in the bottle, include the information somewhere on the label -- some candies look a bit too much like pills and may cause confusion.

3 Stress Relief

Sometimes, a little humor is just the thing to help ease ongoing tension or stress. Create a label with a humorous medicine name such as "effital" or "damnitol" for a friend with a good sense of humor, or keep it simple, and label the bottle as "chill pills," "instant happiness" or "bad mood-buster." Again, be sure to clearly note that the bottle contains candies or mints so the recipient doesn't think you are giving her actual prescription drugs. Add a few cartoon images to the label, if desired, to make the humor more obvious.

4 Spice It Up

For a gag gift aimed toward adult activities, print up a label for "extra-strength Viagra," "super libido pills" or "Cupid in a bottle" as a joke for an aging friend or co-worker. Cinnamon hot candies are an ideal filler for a gag gift implying she needs help warming up her love life; use heart-shaped candies as an alternative.

Kathy Adams is an award-winning journalist and freelance writer who traveled the world handling numerous duties for music artists. She writes travel and budgeting tips and destination guides for USA Today, Travelocity and ForRent, among others. She enjoys exploring foreign locales and hiking off the beaten path stateside, snapping pics of wildlife and nature instead of selfies.

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