Did you ever make “sand candles” as a kid? The idea was to press objects into wet sand and then pour melted wax into the resulting depression. Once cool, you wound up with a (somewhat sandy) molded candle.

Daring Baker Duluth decided to try the same idea with chocolate, using an edible substrate as the mold. The first attempt used brown sugar and she eventually tested several other substances as well; apparently flour works the best.

This is a splendid idea, and opens up all sorts of decorative possibilities. Anything small-ish without too much intricate detail is fair game for this kind of casting, and there are plenty of spooky items that would be perfect. Cast plastic novelties like bats, snakes, toads, or spiders to decorate a “witches’ brew” cake, or give a friend a box of chocolate skulls. Cast your own fingers as cake toppers or make little candy tombstones as placecards.

This is also a fun and not-too-messy activity to do with kids, so they can make their own edible decorations. Great stuff.

(via Brass Goggles)

Just look at this gorgeous thing.

Over at Seeing Things, Marilyn takes wonderful advantage of the striped “witch stockings” that show up around Halloween by making a spectacular wreath. I love the over-the-top trimmings.

The instructions are really simple, and obviously you could use any patterned stockings that you like: I think this would look great using black-and-white stripes as part of a Nightmare Before Christmas wreath, or spiderweb-patterned tights embellished with glittery spiders. Instead of a wreath, the covered styrofoam balls could also be strung together as a decorative garland. They might also be used individually as holiday ornaments; just hide the gathered ends with a tuft of curled ribbon (or a little plastic skull).

Costume tights are cheap and easy to find right now, although if you can bear to wait this is the kind of project where it really pays to stock up at after-Halloween clearance sales. Get a bunch of different patterns and experiment. A door wreath would make a nice hostess gift for a Halloween party as well.

The fabulous xJane dropped me a line about Etsy shop SWStitchery, which offers, amongst other things, felt Krampus ornaments. Since xJane grew up with a different color of Krampus,* the seller even made her a custom one.

Krampusnacht is December 5, so order early if you want to make sure you have sufficient pocket-sized Krampuses on hand to properly celebrate. Assuming you’re the sort of person who would put a Krampus in your pocket.

The shop also sells several other spooky felt ornaments, including teensy skeletal elves, cheerful Yetis, and goofy little bats. Its other main offering appears to be hair accessories, like this “bubble ghost” headband (I have to find some of that fabric) and this cute ribbon spider.

The whimsical little ornaments would be a great “spooky, but not too spooky” holiday decoration, and the prices are quite reasonable. Check ’em out!

(Thanks, xJane!)

*And if, “That’s a Krampus of a different color” doesn’t immediately become part of your vocabulary there’s something wrong with you.

It’s October! Whee!!!