Halloween DIY - Making your own fake blood

I love the fall and Halloween marks the beginning of the holidays for me. I like the scary version of Halloween rather than the cute. This year I knew I wanted to make a centerpiece where the flowers bleed. I also wanted them floating in fake blood. If you read my previous post you know I made my Halloween dreams come true and used a lot of fake blood in my design. 

Buying that much fake blood can be costly and I like to spend as little as possible. Making fake blood is really super simple. It takes only 3 ingredients and very little time. You will want to use a bowl for mixing that either doesn't stain or that you don't mind getting stained.
 

Fake Blood

• Corn Syrup
• Hershey's Chocolate Syrup
• Red food coloring 

Start with about 2/3 of the bottle of corn syrup in a bowl or container. Do not use all the corn syrup. Mix in 5 tablespoons of chocolate syrup and add about a teaspoon of red food coloring.

Mix and test the color. If it's not red enough, add more red food coloring. If it's too cherry red, add another tablespoon of chocolate syrup. If, in playing with the recipe you need to dilute the color, add more corn syrup. 

I didn't follow a recipe when I made mine; I winged it and discovered a few things you don't want to do. 

• Don't use blue food coloring. I tried to use it to make the color a deeper red and it turned brown. It took me quite a bit of adjustments to make the color right.
• Add a tablespoon of chocolate syrup at a time after the initial batch. Adding more can make the color off. 
• Be sure not to use all the corn syrup at the start. When I added blue and too much chocolate syrup having some left was my only way to save the batch.  

This blood is great for dripping, using as wound blood and making Halloween decor. It worked great to make the centerpiece in my tablescape bleed onto to the flowers in the bowls below. To see the finished design, you can click here.

Halloween can be fun and inexpensive if you use things around the house to make the items you need. In one of my next posts I will show you how to use eye shadow to create zombie makeup, devil makeup, and fake bruising. 

Happy Autumn!

Laureen