You hold up a sheet of paper with absolutely nothing on it. You say it's a letter from a ghost, written in ink nobody can see. You paint over it with purple potion, and a message appears.
🌟 Level 1: Apprentice
⏱ 10 minutes to learn
🧪 Potions
🎒 Ages 5+
Works by itself, or one simple move. It works the first try.
🫧 This stains. Put an old cloth down first.🚫 A potion is for looking at, not for drinking.👋 Grape juice stains, so put an old cloth or some newspaper down first.
What you need
The secret
Get ready, before anybody is watching
Mix baking soda and water, about the same amount of each, in a little cup.
Dip the cotton swab and write your message on the white paper.
Leave it somewhere flat to dry completely. It has to look blank before you perform.
Magicians use secrets. Some secrets are hidden objects, some are special ways of holding things, and some are clever maths. The biggest secret of all is attention: a magician gets you to look at one thing while the secret happens somewhere else. Then they practise until it looks like nothing at all.
What do I need to start doing magic?
Almost nothing. A deck of cards, a coin, a pencil, a rubber band, a paper cup and some paper will get you through dozens of tricks. A wand is fun and completely optional.
You hold up a sheet of paper with absolutely nothing on it. You say it's a letter from a ghost, written in ink nobody can see. You paint over it with purple potion, and a message appears. It's a level 1 apprentice trick for ages 5 to 10 (grades K–4th), takes 10 minutes to learn, and needs 6 things you already have. Flick, the shop's rabbit, reads every step aloud with a picture, so a child can follow it alone.
The secret
The message was written in baking soda mixed with water, and it dried invisible. Grape juice changes colour wherever it finds baking soda, so the writing shows up as you paint.
What you need
White paper
Baking soda
Water
A cotton swab
Grape juice
A paintbrush
Get ready, before anybody is watching
Mix baking soda and water, about the same amount of each, in a little cup.
Dip the cotton swab and write your message on the white paper.
Leave it somewhere flat to dry completely. It has to look blank before you perform.
How to do it
Mix the baking soda and the water in a cup, about the same amount of each.
Write your message on the white paper with the cotton swab dipped in the mix.
Leave it flat until it's completely dry. Now the paper looks blank.
Hold it up and say it's a letter from a wizard, written in invisible ink.
Paint the grape juice across the paper with the paintbrush.
The message appears. Read it out loud in your spookiest voice.
Magic words to say
“This came through the letterbox this morning with no stamp on it. It's blank, which is how ghosts write. Luckily I've got the potion that reads ghost handwriting.”
Pro tips
Write something short. A whole sentence takes ages to appear and the room goes quiet in the wrong way.
Paint from one side to the other so the message arrives a word at a time.
Make a second one before the show and keep it in an envelope. Then you can do it twice.
If something goes wrong
If nothing shows up, the mix was too watery. Make it thicker, write it again and let it dry properly. The waiting is the only hard part of this trick.
Safety notes
This stains. Put an old cloth down first.
A potion is for looking at, not for drinking.
Grape juice stains, so put an old cloth or some newspaper down first.
Something has to dry.
A bit messy.
No fire, no flames and nothing sharp in a child's hand anywhere in the Magic Shop. Nothing ever goes in a mouth, a nose or an ear.
The science behind the trick
Grape juice has a natural dye in it that changes colour depending on what it touches. Baking soda is a base, so wherever the juice finds dried baking soda it turns a different colour, and your invisible writing becomes visible writing.
What kind of trick is this?
🎩 Production. Something appears out of nowhere. Almost every trick ever invented is one of eight kinds, and knowing which one you're watching is how magicians work out how a new trick is done.
The skill it teaches:Patter: what you say. A trick is a story, not a thing that happens. Perform it and it counts towards the Kitchen Alchemist badge.
Questions about invisible ink
How do magicians do their tricks?
Magicians use secrets. Some secrets are hidden objects, some are special ways of holding things, and some are clever maths. The biggest secret of all is attention: a magician gets you to look at one thing while the secret happens somewhere else. Then they practise until it looks like nothing at all.
What do I need to start doing magic?
Almost nothing. A deck of cards, a coin, a pencil, a rubber band, a paper cup and some paper will get you through dozens of tricks. A wand is fun and completely optional.