Last year on Craftster there was a post about a cute “zombie girl scout” Halloween costume which included merit badges for things like “limb reattachment” and “brain eating.” I’m not an enormous fan of zombies–I prefer my monsters less stinky and without bits falling off–but I loved the individualized merit badge notion. The idea has been rattling around in the back of my head ever since, and I finally decided to run up some badges for the local Vampire Scout troop (click to enlarge):

Transformation	Glamouring
Garlic Eradication	Coffin Repair
Fang Maintenance	Blood Type Identification

I tried to keep the designs simple enough that they could be easily rendered in embroidery, fabric paint, or whatever your medium of choice is; in a real pinch you could simply print them on stickers.

These were the achievements that I came up with off the top of my head, but there are plenty of others that could be used to expand the set: Burial Plot Landscaping, Care and Feeding of Children of the Night, Minion Recruitment, Anti-Sparkle Outreach….

deviantART user AngelDemonn made an interesting voodoo top hat that might serve as inspiration for a similar project. She doesn’t provide a lot of detail about construction other than to note that boiling your own chicken feet isn’t such a hot idea, but the pictures should provide a general idea of how to get started.

The hat itself can be (depending upon your funds and ambition) a cheap Halloween prop or a quality reproduction hat.

The chicken bones used to decorate the sides of the hat are fairly easy to obtain as a by-product of chicken stock: After simmering for several hours the bones come out almost completely clean, and any lingering shreds are easy to remove with an old toothbrush. I’ve seen instructions for removing the last bits of meat by immersing the bones in a lye solution overnight (which will also whiten them), but I don’t know if messing with caustic chemicals is really worth it in this particular instance.*

Feathers are available at craft stores, as are embellishments like glass beads and metal charms; you might also be able to find animal teeth, claws, skulls, or other bits that add to the hat’s potential “magic.” Instead of the moss used here, some wide ribbon, tulle, or a bit of tattered velvet might add visual appeal whilst looking less…um…mossy.

This would be a great finishing detail for a Loa or calavera costume,** or simply to wear out clubbing.

*I use lye when making soap, so if you plan to try this method, a couple of suggestions: 1) Do it outside or in a well-ventilated area, because the fumes are nasty. 2) Mix it in something that’s both nonreactive (stainless steel or enamelware is good) and heatproof, because the chemical reaction causes the stuff to become insanely hot. 3) Add the lye to the water, not the reverse; the lye can splatter when water is poured on, and you really truly don’t want to be splashed with lye. Also using protective eyewear is a really good idea.

**Yes, yes, wrong culture. Sue me.

In addition to making props for a living, Dave Lowe frequently makes little one-off items for himself, either as part of his Halloween decor or just to amuse himself. They’re always marvelous, both in terms of creativity and sheer artistry, but I think that the thing I like most about them is that they’re such fantastic inspiration for doing a project of one’s own.

Such is the case of this wonderful item, which would be a gorgeous display piece for a desk or bookshelf. I love that the display text suggests it’s actually a tooth from a Bumble instead of a plain old Yeti.

Each part of this piece is (reasonably) easy to do: The tooth carving isn’t too intricate, and the display stand is a wooden bowl and a dowel. Put together, painted, and aged, they look fantastic. A similar “collected item” would make a unique gift for a monster (or Rudolph!) fan.

Craftygoths member eyedollize posted these striking “fallen angel” barrettes a while back. I like the juxtaposition of the skeletal body with the butterfly wings.

She uses just the head and torso for the barrettes, and cleverly uses the leftover arms as hairpins. (The picture of those on her original post has disappeared, but there are some in her Etsy shop.)

Something similar–although perhaps not quite as sinister-looking–would be pretty easy to make if you’ve got a miniature plastic skeleton or two laying around. (As one does.) The ones from Anatomical are nicely detailed, but you can sometimes find cheaper ones at “dollar stores,” particularly around Halloween. Artificial butterflies are available from craft stores or online.

Something similar would be cute as a brooch or used to accessorize a hat or bag, too.

Beetlegirl Design has an easy tutorial for making “springtime blossoms” out of circles of tulle. The examples are soft pastels, but they’d also look great in darker shades.

Branches of these would be great centerpieces at a wedding: You could make the flowers match your wedding colors, or spray-paint the branches black and fill them with orange or scarlet blooms for a gothier look.

A few of the delicate little blossoms would also be pretty on a hat or scattered along a jacket lapel. They’re easy to make, so they’d be a great last-minute way to add a little punch to an article of clothing.

Cheap! Easy! Two things I love in a project.

Craftster member Bunny in a Bear made this “zombie defense station,” and it is just jaw-droppingly wonderful. It includes a shotgun and shells, machete, helpful instructions, and the front panel doubles as a riot shield. His post includes information on how he obtained/made the various items, and other than having to drill a couple of holes in a sheet of plexiglas the whole thing could be made by even the least crafty amongst us.

This would be a marvelous gift for the zombie-loving person in your life, and you could also take the same basic idea and modify it for other monsters: A vampire emergency kit with a stake and vial of holy water, a werewolf version with silver bullets and a bottle marked “dried wolfsbane,” and so on.

Bonus Link: If you aren’t quite up to building a wall unit, check out this cute zombie hunter gift pack. There’s some great inspiration for giving someone the gift of mayhem.

Alaina Zulli, a dressmaker and costume historian who specializes in historical sewing techniques, has put up a three-part tutorial for making a corset at CRAFT:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

I’m sorry the series wasn’t published a month or so ago, when I was making this costume for Shadaughter; I could have used a few pointers.

Fortunately, if you’re interested in making a corset of your own, it’s actually not as difficult as you might expect. If you can sew a straight seam, you can make a corset. “Historical” patterns seem to be very popular right now, so many major pattern companies have easy-to-follow patterns and instructions for period undergarments. I used Simplicity #5726 for the corset and chemise, and except for the WTF-ness of the instructions for inserting 24 steel bones of various lengths consisting of a single, airy, “Be sure to insert the bones in the correct sleeves,”* it was actually quite straighforward.

Corset hardware is a bit specialized and doesn’t seem to be readily available in the fabric stores I frequent, but I was able to find everything I needed online. I ordered from corsetmaking.com and Lost Coast, and both companies were great to work with.

Custom corsets can be extremely expensive, but with a little patience you can create your own for a fraction of the cost.

*I’m going to pray that they never start writing instructions for Ikea, since I assume they’d be, “Open box. Assemble furniture.”

Molly of The Purl Bee made this cute “aquarium” bulletin board, which would be great for a child’s room.*

Something a bit darker would also be a great gift for an older child or adult. Instead of starfish and seaweed, you could populate your “aquarium” with sharks, piranha, and electric eels. Or, instead of an aquarium, choose a darker-colored board and make a graveyard with little felt tombstones, skulls, and fluttering bats. If you’re feeling particularly ambitious, a set of magnets that can be arranged into a skeleton (skull, ribcage, pelvis, armbones, etc.) would be a great project.

Felt is fairly easy to work with because the edges don’t ravel. You can cut small, intricate shapes without having to worry about finishing raw edges or turning tight corners. Keep an eye for a theme that appeals to you, then search for patterns (or even clip art) that you can print and use as a cutting guide. Add a bit of simple embroidery (Molly’s tutorial is a great guide to embellishing the shapes) and you can turn out nice-looking felt objects without too much effort.

You can also decorate the magnetic board itself using paint or thin contact paper cut into various shapes. A flock of magnetic bats flitting out of a gothic-looking window would be much more fun to hang dental appointments and reminders to call the plumber than a boring old corkboard.

*With the important caveat that the child is old enough to know not to swallow magnets. Strong magnets can cause internal injury if swallowed.

Here’s a cute idea from the Cut Out and Keep forum: Flowers with skull centers.

The instructions are a bit on the minimal side (for instance, the crafter mentions glazing the petals but doesn’t specify with what), but they’re a great jumping-off point for something similar. The little clay skulls look like they’d be pretty easy to model, but if you’re completely hopeless with sculpting you could use novelty buttons or some other lightweight plastic skull. You’d probably want to choose a skull shape that’s reasonably flat and roundish rather than oval, to better mimic the central disk of the flower.

Paint, seal, glue a circle of petals to the back, and you’ve got a flower with a cute little skull peering out at you. These would be great on a barrette or worn as a brooch. If you’re so inclined, you could also make little teensy ones and affix them to the heads of thumbtacks to make some extremely arresting pushpins.

Here’s a silly little project from CraftBits: A pen with a voodoo doll topper.

It’s really nothing more than a pen with a twig crosspiece wrapped in twine. The tutorial calls for minimal decorations such as bits of cloth and beads, but there’s no reason you couldn’t get much more elaborate with your embellishments (keeping in mind that you don’t want the top of the pen to be so heavy that it’s impossible to write with). This Squiddoo lens has a nice overview of making and decorating a similar twig-and-twine doll, and this site goes into a little more detail about the symbolism of various pin colors.

These would be fun party favors or other giveaways, since they’re fast and cheap to assemble and are certainly unique.