- Make edible spooky potions that glow when exposed to a black light. Tonic water has the ingredient quinine, which glows when exposed to black lighting. Experiment with making tonic water food and beverages for Halloween, turn a black light on, and wait a few minutes to see the blue glow reveal itself. Tonic water has a bitter flavor, so rather than making a drink with the tonic water, create ice cubes in trays with Halloween shapes from tonic water and add them to a clear or light-colored beverage. Alternatively, pour tonic water into a rubber glove that has not been powdered, add a rubber band to close the top tightly, freeze and add to a punch bowl. Or pour tonic water into gelatin Halloween molds to create glowing gelatin.
- Make sticky Halloween slime using white glue and powdered Borax. Make the slime by adding an entire 8-oz. bottle of white glue, 1 cup cold water and 1/2 cup of warm water to a glass bowl, stirring after adding each ingredient. Add a few drops of green or purple Halloween colors and blend with a spoon. Add borax one teaspoon at a time, mixing with your hands until the glue turns into a gelatinous slime. Make the slime glow by adding glow-in-the-dark powder pigment instead of food coloring. Allow the children to play with a large glob of slime. Alternatively, separate smaller pieces of slime, place them in small baggies, and give them as party favors.
- Make creepy Halloween bleeding hand prints on paper with the use of goldenrod paper and ammonia. Purchase goldenrod color-changing paper online. Spray your hand with a solution of water and household ammonia, and place your hand onto the paper. The ammonia causes the goldenrod paper to change color, from golden-yellow to red. Saturate your hand to create drips on the paper that look like blood dripping. Alternatively, use this process to create hidden messages on the paper. Dip a cotton swab into the solution, write a message on the paper with the swab, and after a brief period of time the paper will turn back to the yellow color and the message will disappear, just like magic.
- Make a smoking witch's cauldron using dry ice. Place a piece of dry ice, using tongs, into a cast iron cauldron filled halfway with warm water. The ice will begin smoking as soon as it hits the water. When the water gets cold, replace it with warm water to keep the cauldron smoking. Place a glow stick into the cauldron to cast a spooky glow. Add a few drops of liquid dish soap to the warm water, then add dry ice, and you will get both a smoking and bubbling cauldron. Use caution with dry ice around children, as it burns skin on contact.
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