Haunted Spell Book With Magical Swirling Potions

Mwwwaaahahaha welcome to my Instructa"ghoul" for my Haunted Spell Book and Magical Swirling & Glowing Potion Bottles.

I will show you how to summon the spooky powers to create an illuminated spell book and self stirring bottles using the mystical arts of craft, art and some electronics.

The spell book is made from plywood with a living hinge, LED, UV LED lights, a motor, magnets all combined with motion detection set on four skull and cross bone feet. The potion bottles have a secret magnetic capsule so when they sit on the book the potion magically swirls.

In this Instructable we use laser cut plywood, basic electronics (no programming needed), molding and casting and some (very) basic chemistry. I’ve included all my design files or links to some so you can recreate one like mine or take bits away you’d like to add to your own spooky Halloween prop.

The book is designed to be standalone and rechargeable, You can skip this and power it directly from a USB.

The Spell Book

1. 3mm Plywood
2. Black Acrylic paint
3. Sparkly paint/coating
4. Sticky Vinyl

Spell book “Haunted” insides

1. HC-SR501 PIR Infrared Sensor - Link
2. UV 3w LED’s -link
3. Pre wired Coloured LED’s
4. Breadboard
5. Breadboard wires
6. Capacitors - 1x 10Ω 4x2.2Ω
7. 18650 battery pack with charging and output module (optional) This is the one I used
8. Switch x2
9. 40mm computer fan
10. 10mm magnets x2
11. Mosfet IRLZ44N (or similar) - Link
12. Fibre optic thread 2mm
13. USB female Pigtail - Link

Haunted Book Feet

1. PLA
2. Silicone mould mix
3. Resin Crete or plaster of Paris
4. Glow in the dark/regular Mica powder

Magic Swirling Potion Bottles

1. Bottles - flat bottomed
2. Distilled Water
3. Glycerin
4. Mica powder (various colours, glow in the dark etc)
5. Highlighter pens
6. UV security -secret spy pen
7. PTFE magnetic stir bars - Link

Tools-Sundries

1. Laser Cutter
2. 3D Printer
3. Soldering Iron, solder
4. Wood Glue
5. Hot glue gun, glue
6. Strong glue, epoxy

I used a laser cutter to make the book, the template is attached. If you don’t have access to a laser cutter you could cut the middle out of an old hardback book.

The design features a living hinge, this is where the plywood is cut with close fitting lines intersecting that create enough space for the wood to bend round on itself, holes are also in the design for switches and usb connector. *there is a copy of the center decoration in red for you use, ignore this layer for cutting.

Cut the pieces and glue in the sides of the book, it’s got a tongue and groove design to hold it together so I cut some thin strips of wood to fill in the gaps around the edges. The top fitted well and closes on itself without the need to be glued shut.

After the glue dried I coated the whole book with black acrylic paint. To make the edges look like pages I used some gold acrylic paint, painted it over but then ran over it lengthways with a stiff, dry brush to give the impression of pages. I then coated the whole thing again with sparkly pva.

For the decals I used a Cricut machine, I’ve shared the file here but also have a PDF you can print, cut and glue if you don’t have a cutting machine. The Cricut is measured to fit the holes for the lights, you might have to tweak the PDF to get the right size.

You can decorate the book anyway you want, let the kids have a bash. I think mine turned out really well.

First we need to prepare the stirrer. The idea came from a magnetic lab liquid stirrer (pictured), I want to use the same tech and disguise it in a spooky book. The mechanism is simple, rotating magnets(s) are mounted on a motor and a magnetic capsule is placed inside the beaker or bottle that the spinning base connects to causing it to spin.

I use a fan to create the spinning movement, this needs magnets attached to the top.

Why a fan? I tried with a couple of motors and found them to be very noisy or to get the right speed I needed to add gears, on these occasions it made the book shake and move about. A fan is silent and I found runs fast enough to get a very good swirl in the bottle.

Take one of the PTFE magnetic stirrers and let two magnets attach to it, they find their own spot. Now using some epoxy, dab some on the magnets and place onto the fan, you must get this as central as possible, if not your fan will wobble and shake the book and break the fan. Let them dry and you can remove the stirrer capsule.

It’s time to bring the book to life. As Dr Frankenstein said "I collected the instruments of life around me, that I might infuse a spark of being into the lifeless thing that lay at my feet.".

This bit looks tricky, it’s not, just a bit laborious. I used a breadboard because it won’t be seen and I didn’t want to create a soldered monstrosity.

I’ve used a battery pack as shown in the pictures and added a link, any similar should work, attach the output to the +/- on the breadboard adding one of the switches to the + lead, solder the pigtail to the +/- inputs on the charge circuit. if you want to us a direct USB connect the pigtail +/- straight to the breadboard.

Connect the Positive and Negative wires from all the pre wired LED’s together, I used a heat shrink connector, connect the positive through the one of the switches and the the ends to the correct positive connectors on the breadboard, or directly to the battery. These are not connected

For the PIR motion detector I removed the plastic dome, it would not look good on the book and does not really serve a purpose for our design. I connected the wires to it and glued it inside using the hole created on the laser cut plan.

Now add the wiring for the UV lights and fan, follow the schematic in the pictures, it’s quite straightforward. (The schematic only shows three UV’s, I used four, just add one)

Note, the UV lights I have used ran hot at first, changing the resistor cooled them but made them dim, after trial and error I found the right balance of heat versus brightness. Experiment with yours the same way.

Now test the circuit before mounting in the book, power it up. I found the PIR sensor takes a minute or two to settle in and work correctly, but once running, using the two switches, you have the choice of simple LED lighting or with the UV and spinning

Using hot glue mount the coloured LED’s in the relevant holes from the inside of the book, also hot glue the wiring to keep it tight. Now do the same with the UV lights and finally mount the fan, magnets toward the top of the book, the UV lights offer a platform to secure it to and allow the magnets to spin.

I then used some hot glue to secure the breadboard and battery into the book and the two switches into the holes we cut on the side. I also used a dab of hot glue on the battery LED’s that show power, charging and full, connected the end of some 2mm fibre optic and passed them through the holes on the side of the book so you can see its status when the book is closed.

Any decent “Grimoire” needs a stand or plinth, so I’m mounting mine on four spooky, scary Skull feet.

I downloaded a free file for a skull and crossbones keyring, my thanks go to the creator, and uploaded it to Tinkercad. After measuring the book I enlarged the model and then added a Hollow square at the rear to create a gap for the book corners. I then exported it as an STL File.

I made a 3D print of one foot, I did this on draft quality and used an old machine, I’m not too concerned about a brilliant finish, it has to look worn. I tested the size on the book and had got it right.

Rather than print a further three feet I made a silicone mold to make them from resin Crete instead. Resin Crete is similar to Plaster of Paris but sets much harder.

I used hot glue to position the skull and glued half a cut beaker around it to create the mould, then using a silicone mold making mix measured a 50/50 (by weight) solution of hardener and silicone. After mixing well I poured the silicone over the skull making sure its was covered. The silicone takes only a couple of hours to cure.

Then I mixed the Resin Crete including some grey mica powder and some glow in the dark powder too to give it a spooky feel when the UV’s are around.

Mica Powder is a silicate obtained from rocks, it offers a glittery relief time effect. If you don’t have any or don’t want to buy any, you can use eyeshadow, use those colours you’ve got left over, eyeshadow is pretty much mica powder.

The Resin Crete only takes about 40 minutes to set so I completed four quite quickly. They looked good especially as they each had a slightly different mix of powder.

“Double, double, toil and trouble; Fire burn and caldron bubble.”The really fun bit, let’s make a magic potion.

First you need bottles. I found mine around the house from small wine bottles (empty sadly), old bottles from gift toiletries and some random miniature bottles. One key thing is they need to have flat bottoms, the magnetic stirrer needs to be flat to be able to spin.

To make the main content for the bottle it’s a simple mix of 75/25 distilled water and glycerin. Glycerin has a much higher viscosity than water, this is what makes the swirl look spooky. We use distilled water to avoid the impurities in normal water that can cause the potion bottle to turn mouldy. Fill the bottles till near the top.

For the colouring I wanted them to glow with the UV lights so I turned to highlighter pens:

Highlighter pens contain fluorescent dyes like pyranine, unlike regular ink they absorb the UV wavelengths and radiate back.

Remove the middle part of the pen and add to a small amount of distilled water , swill it about and let it sit. I did orange and green. After a an hour or so you should have a decent colour. Use a pipette to add the colour until you get the shade you want. (The longer you leave the pen soaking the deeper the colour gets)

I then went back to mica powder and added different shades to each bottle including some glitter and in one Halloween shapes.

For the round bottle and test tube in the pictures I followed the same process but instead of a highlighter I used a UV security marker pen (like the secret message pens you had as a kid) soaking the middle, it comes out clear but glows up under UV with no colour. I added shapes and mica to it and I think it’s nearly my favourite mix.

Remember to drop in the PTFE stirrer, seal the bottles with the cap or cork and give them a shake.

A Spell for Makers, turn ideas into reality one drop at a time.

I used a mix of ways to make the bottles look more like potions.

Decals, very straight forward I had some stick on letters so used these.

For the potion clay label I used some air dry clay and made it on the bottle to get the shape adding some edges, I took it off the bottle dry then painted it with gold and silver acrylic paint and added decal letters.

For my “Instant Instructable” bottle I ventured into the AI world and asked for an Instructable potion label, I told it the text and it did the rest, I was really impressed with the result.

For the top I melted some wax in a water bath and repeatedly dipped the top of the bottle in, turned it the right way up to let the wax drip a little and repeat. For the corked bottle I used a little hot glue to secure it, the contents are not really dangerous but you don’t want people mistaking them for something edible.

Some bottles I left blank so the potion can do the “magic”

Only thing left to do is to choose your spot, place it on a table or shelf making sure the motion sensor is facing where it can be triggered (but maybe not all the time). You can turn on the LED’s for mood lighting or the motion detection for the full effect.

Place the bottles on the centre of the book and set it off……….

I’ve put mine surrounded by spooky webs and a steaming cauldron, mwwwaaaahahahah

Happy Halloween