Cthulhu in Love Perfume – ThinkGeek worked with Black Alchemy to produce this exclusive perfume that smells like “an amorphous mix of oppressive, piceous ritual incense, macerated kelp, sea salt, sticky dark ocean plants, and . . . mixed chocolates.”
Serial Killers Ink – Site specializing in “murderabilia.” You too can own a framed copy of Charles Manson’s driver’s license or a letter typed and signed by David Berkowitz.
One More Demented Gift Idea – Life Magazine offers framed photos of the inside of Ed Gein’s house. The comments on the article are interesting as well.
Weird Harrogate – Blog devoted to vintage “photos” of the town that Dickens described as, “the queerest place with the strangest people in it leading the oddest lives.” I’m especially fond of the squid.
Etsy SteamTeam – Group of Etsy sellers interested in creating and promoting the Steampunk genre.
I often do a fortune-telling schtick at parties–in fact, I’m fairly sure that an ex-co-worker keeps inviting me to her Halloween parties because I do tarot readings for her other guests–and because I’m far more interested in the entertainment value than “real” divination,* I generally bill myself as Madame Gazpacho Zorka (Cheaper Than a Consultant, Same Results). I’ve occasionally toyed with making a wooden sign advertising my “services,” but I suck enormously at freehand drawing and I never seem to get around to trying my hand at stenciling.
Fortunately, I was browsing around on Etsy recently and found somebody who specializes in just that. Tracy of The Homespun Raven offers a huge variety of premade stenciled signs, and she also does custom orders.
I asked her to combine a couple of her stock stencils (she can arrange to have a custom one made just for you, but it costs quite a bit extra) with my desired wording, and was quite pleased with the result. She works very quickly, and her signs are really quite affordable.
Even if you don’t have any designs on a custom piece, be sure to check out her premade stuff. I really like the rustic/vintage look of the signs, and pieces like this ouija board or this tavern sign might be the perfect thing to spruce up a bare wall.
*If you’d like to “tell fortunes” the way I do, check out the guide to bluffing your way through the tarot I wrote a while back.
I ran across this cute tutorial over at Naughty Secretary Club and was inspired to try something similar. I made a few changes and had some additional comments, so I figured it was worth posting a modified how-to of my own.
Painted tights are quite fashionable right now, but can be outrageously expensive. Jennifer’s great DIY take on them is cheap, easy, and infinitely customizable. I tried a fairly simple calavera for my first attempt, but it’d also be fun to do trailing thorns or dripping blood down the whole leg. If you’re really feeling ambitious, you could paint the outlines of leg bones for an X-ray look.
This is an advertisement for K-fee, a German energy drink, which built an entire campaign around the slogan “you’ve never been so wide awake.” It made the jump to e-mail a few years ago, with text claiming that it was an unaired BMW promotional video which included–if you paid close attention–a faint mist that was supposed to be a ghost or something. What actually happens, of course, is that you peer intently at the screen and then the monster leaps out at the end and scares the everlivinghell out of you.
The reason I hate this ad is because, even though I know that damn monster is going to appear at the end, it still makes me jump Every. Single. Time. I’m telling you right now, there’s a scary leapy thing at the end of this advertisement, and if you watch it you will be startled. (I’ll also point out that even without the German text at the end I would immediately know this was a foreign ad, because if this aired in the U.S. we’d have ravening packs of lawyers circling like sharks and fighting over who got to file the first heart-attack lawsuit.)
There were actually several similar ads made by the company. This video compiles them all for your delectation.
I’ve seen some peculiar fake user registrations crop up recently, and in the past couple of weeks they’ve become frequent enough to trip my Annoyance Threshold. I’ve temporarily turned off user registration until whatever ‘bot is doing it decides to go elsewhere.
It shouldn’t affect anyone’s ability to comment, since registration isn’t required for that. If you’re a real person and wish to register for the site, drop me a line and I’ll add you manually.
Closet Sachets – Tutorial for making pretty cloth sachets that look like moths. Not terribly goth, but you could turn your moths into the Death’s Head variety, or make them bats instead.
Stop Sentimental Vamps – I love the graphic design (not to mention the sentiment) of this print.
Gift Idea for Delightfully Demented People – A guest blogger at BoingBoing is turning his guest bathroom into a chamber of horrors. He offers some tips on buying good-looking replica shrunken heads.
Skeleton Hoodie – Very cool hoodie made by discharge printing with bleach.
Two by the same author: Pop-Up Book of Phobias and the Pop-Up Book of Nightmares – These are wonderfully macabre and gorgeously illustrated pop-up books for adults. Even if you don’t have a fear of clowns, you might after seeing the pop-up version.
Check out this gorgeous thing made by Craftster member BeatnikChick. The design is based on a gypsy-themed tattoo, and it’s just stunning.
She doesn’t offer a pattern, but she does have a couple of links to bigger photos on Flickr which might provide enough detail for the stitch-crafty amongst us to try something similar. And, of course, you can always ask your favorite tattoo artist for permission to copy their patterns.
Incidentally, I’m thinking that this gypsy-skull thing would also make a dynamite Halloween costume.
Disney and Urban Decay are two great tastes that…have nothing to do with each other, usually. But they’ve teamed up to design a “book of shadows” to promote the new Alice in Wonderland movie.
The carrying case includes a mirror with a hallucinogenic scene of Alice amongst the mushrooms, and the eyeshadows have names like White Rabbit, Jabberwocky, and Oraculum. Since Urban Decay shadows usually sell for $16 apiece, $52 for 16 (plus primer potion and two eye pencils) is kind of a steal.
Here’s a little critter that’s perfect for the perkygoth. Graphic designer Mori Chack developed Gloomy Bear as the antithesis of the excessively cute characters peddled by Sanrio and Disney. He describes it as a 2 meter tall, violent, pink bear that eats humans (its human “friend” is covered with cuts and bruises).
I ran across 
Check out this gorgeous thing made by Craftster member 
Disney and Urban Decay are two great tastes that…have nothing to do with each other, usually. But they’ve teamed up to design a “book of shadows” to promote the new Alice in Wonderland movie.
Here’s a little critter that’s perfect for the perkygoth. Graphic designer Mori Chack developed Gloomy Bear as the antithesis of the excessively cute characters peddled by Sanrio and Disney. He describes it as a 2 meter tall, violent, pink bear that eats humans (its human “friend” is covered with cuts and bruises).