I have had the following line in my Drafts folder for, literally, five years:

Use Victorian button-up boots as vases for dried flower arrangements; put a glass jar inside to hold water and keep the flowers steady.

…and every time I’d go to post about it I’d think, “That is a pretty thin thing to hang a post on,” and stuff it back in my Drafts folder.*

But then I ran into the photo above and realized that it’s actually an awesome thing to hang a post on.

I finally traced the photo back to Sandy’s Creations: She doesn’t offer any notes on materials, but there are a couple of additional pictures. It looks like maybe the paper stuff was decoupaged on and the rest of the doodads were attached with something like hot glue. Since the flowers she used are artificial you don’t really need a jar inside, but you may wish to stick a chunk of floral foam in the bottom to hold them in place if they’re wiggly. (And, of course, you could use it for real flowers by including the aforementioned jar.)

Just about any kind of small, lightweight spooky decoration would look great on this: Ribbons, charms, scraps of lace, novelty buttons, printouts of vintage Halloween cards, fake spider webs, or whatever else catches your fancy. Make sure the material on the boot is clean and dry before decoupaging/gluing anything in place to make sure it’ll stick; if the boot is made of vinyl or something else very slick, you may want to rough up the surface a little with sandpaper to ensure good adhesion.

Since scuffs and other signs of wear would simply add to the charm, this would be a fine project for a thrifted boot and would also be a way to salvage a pair of one’s own worn-out shoes. If you don’t like the Victorian “witchy” look, you could go steampunk-with-gears or death-metal-with-spikes too.

I quite like the idea of hanging it on the door as a wreath substitute, but it would also look great in a window or simply perched on a table or desk.

This is one of those projects where it’s fun to collect little decorative oddments over time, as you find the perfect bits to fill in the spaces. It’s simple, should be fairly inexpensive, and should give you a striking result.

*I have a lot of stuff like that in my Drafts folder. Someday I will sweep out the corners and dump the dustpan in your laps.

Photographer Jason Isley does a lot of underwater photography, but recently found himself running out of ways to make the “common macro life” interesting. His answer was to include plastic miniatures of humans and equipment in the shots, resulting in a set of photos which have a wonderful “50s B-movie” feel to them. The arrangements very cleverly integrate the figures into the fishy action. (You can buy prints here.)

This is a splendid idea, not only as a way to add a unique twist to nature photography, but also as aquarium/vivarium decorations. You’d need to make sure that the figures you used weren’t made of any material that might be toxic to fish, but a burned-out cityscape terrorized by giant hermit crabs or innocent beachgoers being menaced by the Plecostomus of Doom would be way more interesting than a plain ol’ treasure chest.

(via BoingBoing)

I ran across this photo the other day and thought, “Aw, what a cute thing to do with plastic Easter eggs.” I eventually tracked it back to a Martha Stewart tutorial on making mini treat boxes and discovered that the instructions call for using papier-mache eggs which sell for four bucks a pop. Really, Martha? The price of two of those will buy you a gross of regular ol’ plastic eggs and you can paint ‘em any color you want.

This tutorial discusses a couple of different methods to get plastic eggs to take paint (and as a bonus, it shows how to make pretty faux-”natural” eggs for decorating). You can paint them all white or do some in cream or light grey for a little more variety.

The Martha Stewart instructions use carefully-cut-out crepe paper for the facial features, which strikes me as being entirely too much work. If you want to do it that way, knock yourself out; the suggested glue stick might not adhere too well, so liquid white glue or something like Mod Podge would probably be preferable. A much easier method, to my mind, would be to just cut a paper stencil of the face and paint it on with black paint.

Make a bunch–maybe change a few up by painting them orange and giving them Jack-o’-lantern features–and fill them with little treats. Hand them out to friends or hide them and have a particularly gothy egg hunt.

They’d also look nice arranged in a basket or even hung like an ornament: To do the latter, either attach ribbon to the wider end with a dab of hot glue, or poke a couple of holes in the end using a dremel tool (or a heated-up nail if you’re careful) and then thread fishing line or yarn through the holes.

(Bonus link: Check out this neat skull egg from Skull-A-Day.)

Now here’s an interesting DIY project: Steampunk-esque heels, complete with LEDs.

These are the work of the now-defunct Etsy shop HotAirBalloonRide; Fashionably Geek has several photos taken from different angles.

These really wouldn’t be too hard to replicate. The gears are just clock parts, which are pretty easy to find: There are pre-packaged collections available from Amazon, and you can also find loose gears (often advertised as “steampunk”) on eBay. A much cheaper eBay option, however, is to look for clock movements and then take them apart yourself (watch out for the mainspring!). That way you get a lot of interesting bits besides just gears, like lever arms and tiny screws and whatnot. If there’s a clock-repair shop in your area, you can also check there for leftover or non-functional parts.

The little glass tubes on the back are just vacuum tubes. You can find plenty of those in many different sizes at specialty vendors like Tube Depot, or at Amazon. They’re still used in professional audio equipment, so you can also check at electronics repair shops to see if they have any burnt-out ones (since they’re just for decoration they don’t need to be functional). The tubes appear to be seated in a bit of copper pipe of the sort used for plumbing: That’s available at any hardware store.

It’s hard to tell from the photos, but I think the LEDs are a single strip (sometimes called rope- or ribbon lights), which can be purchased in custom lengths. If you want a little more flexibility in light placement, it’s easy to wire up single LEDs to a small, flat battery. Evil Mad Scientist Labs has a large selection of LEDs and their blog is a great source of information about wiring and using them. (There’s also a nice beginner’s guide here.)

There’s a lot of fairly heavy stuff on these shoes (although you could cheat a little and use plastic gears spray-painted metallic), so you’d need to choose a style that’s fairly sturdy; the ones in the photos appear to have thick wedge-type heels. You’d also need a heavy-duty adhesive; something like Gorilla Glue might work, but epoxy or Sugru are other options. Be careful to attach the batteries to the shoes in a way that allow them to be replaced when they run out (not to mention be unhooked or switched off when not being worn).

Fill in leftover space with metal studs, chains (both available at craft stores), and anything interesting-looking from the hardware store. For extra credit, decorate a matching purse. They’ll certainly get you noticed.

Whilst looking for images for yesterday’s post, I kept running up against images like the one at left in my search results. In the spirit of complete WTF-ery, I went looking for the artist…and it turns out there’s more than one. Lots more.

The Captain Hook image is by deviantART member lcslayer, whose other works in this vein include Jafar, Hades, and a really skanky-looking Cruella deVil.

The motherlode for male models appears to be David Kawena, whose stuff looks like airbrushed photos and will make sure that you never look at another Disney hero with innocent eyes. Woof.

There’s a lot of Disney heroine artwork that’s straight-up pornography, which tends to be boring; some artists who do more pinup-style drawings include Camus Altamirano (I particularly like his Sally), biaani and j-scott-campbell; he apparently produces calendars based on his drawings.

Although none of the stuff in any of these galleries show any really naughty bits, I think it goes without saying that none of these links are particularly safe for work. Or for one’s childhood memories.

I am on record as stating that I refuse to collect things (on the grounds that I don’t want to dust them), but if I were to ever make an exception to that rule it would probably be over netsuke. They’re small, amazingly varied, and some are marvelously creepy.

Netsuke started out as utilitarian objects: Little toggles to attach 17th-century Japanese men’s purses* to their belts. Like a lot of mundane objects, they eventually became an outlet for artistic expression until they were essentially intricate, miniature sculptures. And since Japan has a rich mythology, much of which is, from a Western viewpoint, frankly insane, many of these teensy sculptures are very gothy indeed.

You’ve got your demons and funky-looking lion deities and big piles of rats. Grotesque faces and ghosts by tombstones and spider monsters.

There are foxes in dresses and skeletons and bats and snakes and some guy who is just entirely too happy to be carrying an octopus.

There are evocative antique ones like this ghost with “a pull-out spine” (what?) frightening two children and splendid modern examples like this skull and raven.

Depending upon your pocketbook, there are antique ivory carvings running into the thousands of dollars and modern wooden ones for under ten bucks. There are collectors’ organizations which can help you explore your options and plenty of dealers in both rare antiques and cheap reproductions. You can even find them on Amazon.

It’s easy to get started with inexpensive modern specimens and then work your way into more esoteric types if you find the hobby suits you (and if it doesn’t, turn the ones you have into jewelry or other accessories). Best of all, unlike with stamps or coins or many similar collectibles, there’s no critical mass you have to reach before it becomes a “collection.” One netsuke is interesting all by itself.

If you’ve never investigated the enormous variety of netsuke before, take a look. You might find a brand-new hobby.

*Okay, they were technically called inro and were used because traditional garments didn’t have pockets, but still. Purse.

Finding Time to Create has a nice tutorial for creating an attractive mobile out of vintage-y paper cutouts. Although she specifies a particular brand of patterned paper, this same idea could be used with any designs you like.

Halloween postcards were extremely popular in the early part of the last century, and reprints are widely available. If you have a good color printer, you can also just look for images online (the work of Ellen Clapsaddle was particularly well-regarded). Other attractive options would be vintage poison labels, thrifted covers from paperback books, family photos of past Halloweens, or lightweight memorabilia like spooky greeting cards.

If you don’t like the tulle at the top (I suspect it would be hard to dust), substitute ribbon instead. A few plastic spiders hot-glued to the ring or dangling amongst the paper items might be a nice addition as well.

I quite like the restrained, subtle nature of this mobile. It’s nicely thematic for the actual holiday, but it’s also attractive enough to leave up as a year-round decoration.

You’ve probably seen the skeletal flamingo lawn ornaments that have become popular as Halloween decorations. A couple of enterprising artists have taken the next logical(?) step and tarted them up as rather wonderful Day of the Dead calavera creations.

The Paisley Moon specializes in “glamping” supplies, and apparently that includes pink skeletal flamingos wearing earrings. There’s also a whole (unrelated) Etsy store devoted to the bony birdies: muertomingos has a variety of over-the-top flamingos, including some rather nice bride and groom sets.

These are also,of course, ripe for the DIY treatment. The base flamingos are cheap (in addition to the plain skeletons there’s also a devilmingo version) and could be repainted any color you like. Sequins, decals, and fake jewels can all be glued on, and the plastic is thin enough that you can punch small holes to insert the stems of silk flowers or wire on jewelry.

Their legs are plain wire because they’re meant to be stuck in the ground, but you can make them freestanding by drilling a couple of holes in a wooden base (which can then be decorated) and inserting the legs.

These are a fun, easy way to fuse “spooky” and “tropical” and would be great decorations for a haunted luau or similar party theme.

I have no idea what the point of this is, but it’s rather wonderful.

Ojo Señor! is a street-art collective in Barcelona who adds glowing LED eyes to pictures–mostly those freaky kids from Village of the Damned, but more recently Edgar Allen Poe and a bunch of cats–and then post them on the street. And then they put pictures of the results on their Tumblr site. This is all silliness of which I heartily approve.

There’s no reason why we couldn’t play along at home. LEDs are dirt cheap, and there’s not even any wiring required: You can just tape the leads to a battery. Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories has a super-simple tutorial for using LEDs as flicker lights inside Jack-o’-lanterns, and the same method could be used to wire up your LED eyes. (Incidentally, EMSL also sells a range of LEDs.)

Then it’s simply a matter of sticking the LEDs through holes cut in the eyes of a photo and taping them in place; you might want to print the photo on heavy paper or mount it on cardboard so the weight of the batteries doesn’t make it sag. Post anonymously on telephone poles or leave in the office breakroom with a stern note about making a new pot of coffee if you take the last cup.

Fun! Easy! Mildly subversive!

(Hat tip to Sisifo)

Here’s an easy weekend project: Turn a mundane outfit into something The Bride of Frankenstein might wear to go dancing. (It’d work with a man’s shirt or trousers too.)

This was inspired by an upcycled slip made by SmarmyClothes (I disagree with the “zombie” label; stitches are much more Frankensteinian). It appears that her garment was actually cut and stitched back together; my method uses a faux seam that’s a little more forgiving of mistakes: You can rip out stitches and re-do them until you get the look you’re after.

If you’d like to try your hand at something similar, I’ve posted a tutorial here.