This is an instructable covering a set of ultra simple ultra cheap table top decorations/food embellishments to create spooky liquid effects for things like punch bowls or fondue or just visual embellishments for Halloween. Scary doesn't have to be scary complicated or horrifyingly expensive!

Me and Dylan hope you enjoy!

Step 1: Tools and Materials

While not required having a helpful assistant like my shop-buddy Dylan is always useful.

Tools:

The only proper tool we used was a screw driver (trouble shooting)

Materials:

Everything for the two setups was under $20. You could probably scrounge up something similar for even less.

One miniature "tranquility" fountain - I purchased the one in this instructable from walgreens on clearance for a couple bucks.

one ultra sonic mister- you can get them really cheap through ali express online but I went with amazon as I have had trouble with them failing and wanted the ability to return https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00PAK245E/ref=o...

Food dye

A bowl (we used a large pyrex bowl for cooking). On Halloween we used a punch bowl with the ultra sonic mister to mist our beverage

Shop marker

Switching power adapter (to power the fountain as it was missing its plug). Having a couple of these around is so nice as you don't need as many to power supplies to power a variety of things

Day of the dead skull- used to keep the ultra sonic mister from splashing and to look super cool and spooky

Step 2: Witches Brew

When working with new cheap electronics troubleshooting is the name of the game.

For those unfamiliar we used an ultrasonic mister to create the fog like effect over water. You can find an explanation of how these things work here: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/ultrasonic-fogger-h...

Basically they are awesome but from model to model they can be finicky or work differently. The model purchased wanted to be completely submerged for optimal mist effect. It also was very splashy so after futzing with a cup to mitigate the splash we eventually settled on using the decorative skull as both a visual element and as a mess reducer. Since the skull has lots of decorative holes it did not impede the fog. We also played with red and then subsequently purple (added blue) food coloring to the water. We considered making a more viscous fake blood syrup but weren't sure if that would mist. If someone knows how to get the mist to change color I would really like to know. I suspect it might run into the same problems as that zubbles guy and the whole difference in the weight of molecules/surface tension stuffs: http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2005-11/11-y...

Also take note that in that last photo while the lights are on in the fountain no water is running. More on that in the next step

Step 3: Problems

As mentioned in the previous step cheap electronics require trouble shooting. We had to open up the tranquility fountain as it was not pumping. We first checked that the power supply was working by plugging in to a different device. We also tried batteries in addition to the power adapter. We turned it on and off with and without water and with water of different amounts. It turns out that sometimes new from factory those little motor pumps can be seized in their housing and won't start the first time unless manually spun to ungunk them. Who knew? Even simple builds and new stuff can require problem solving!

Step 4: Bloody Murder- Aesthetic Touches

Again we considered using more viscous/thick fake blood but we were fairly happy with 20 drops of food dye (and concerned we might regunk up the motor). We also used red welding markers (intended to mark metal) to add some blood dripping touches to the candles. Really you can create something pretty shocking pretty easily. Perhaps add a severed finger or loose eyeball to exaggerate the effect!

Step 5: A Ghoulish Center Piece

We hope this instructable was helpful and look forward to others hopefully doing awesome things with it. If you do use some of the ideas in here please share photos!

Frightfully yours,

Joseph