Matt Mets used paper cutouts on both the inside and outside of a lampshade to create a cute “monster after dark” effect.
This kind of fun with silhouettes is ripe for all kinds of customization: A crescent moon with bats that appear at night, a castle haunted by a nocturnal ghost, and lots of other now-you-see-them-now-you-don’t options. A reverse effect might also be possible, where an innocuous-looking doorway could have spooky eyes glowing from within. (The only caveat might be that the cutouts for the eyes may still be visible when the light is off.)
You could do something a little more permanent using stickers or even paint, but I kind of like the idea of temporary paper cutouts that can be changed as the whim suits you.
There are things in the wilds of the intarwebs that make you quizzically cock your head to one side like a dog hearing a high-pitched whistle, and this is one of them.
The Zombible (“Matthew, Mark, Luke, and Zombies”) dares to ask the question, “How might the Gospels have been different if Jesus had come to Earth not to save mankind from sin, but from zombies?” And then it rewrites the contents of the four gospels by way of an answer.
It’s subtle; the prose uses the King James style of writing, and if you just skim it you might not notice anything amiss. But if you read a bit more closely, you notice things like this part of the Parable of the Prodigal Son:
7 And when he came to himself, he thought, How many hired servants has my father spare, and I moan with hunger! 8 I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Brains, 9 and call upon his hired servants.
10 And he arose, and shambled to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell, and ran, and kissed him.
11 And the son said unto him, Brains.
The authors state that this is their first work, so they may intend to rewrite the entire New Testament to reflect Jesus’ new mission. It’d be amusing to quote a verse here and there, insisting that they’re legitimate.
People, I love Halloween with an unrestrained passion. My love for Halloween is Not Normal. Nobody in my family knows where this came from. We are the kind of family that carves a pumpkin, MAYBE two, and that is all. We do not fuck about with spiderwebs and mood lighting. We open the door, dole out a Three Musketeers or a Snickers, and that is the end of the matter.
But something in my genetic makeup was dissatisfied with that arrangement, and somehow, y’all, I have become…I have become That Person who feels the need to decorate the everloving HELL out of her house. I am That Person who BUYS those full-sized skeletons, hanging witches, and packages of fake spiderwebs. I am That Person, and That Person is me, and together, we are a nutbag.
She posted some photos of a previous year’s decorating efforts to Flickr, and oh I am passionately in love with this side table. It is, obviously, meant to be just a Halloween decoration and I’m sure that something a little less unusual occupies its depths during the rest of the year, but holy crap I want this table year-round. I think it’s because the bones look real instead of fakey-plastic, and they’re so artfully arranged and look so elegant on top of the dirt. The dirt-and-bone color scheme matches the shabby-chic distressed paint on the table nicely, too.
The bones have enough of an archaeological-dig feel about them that they’re interesting rather than disturbing; a coffee- or end table decorated like this would be an amazing accent piece in an otherwise mainstream room. Lovely!
Doctor Who superfan TheTARDISGuy203 cut together footage from the William Hartnell era, set it to music from the Nightmare on Elm Street reboot, and created a pretty decent faux trailer for a horror movie.
Once Upon a Zombie Dolls – Every time I think the zombie fad has jumped the undead shark, somebody comes up with a new way to exploit it. These are knockoff Disney princess dolls, only zombied. Because why not.
Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best ones. Country Living Magazine featured a home ostensibly made over for Halloween although the decorations are so minimal and restrained that their “Whooo, spooky” is more subtle than my everyday decor.
However, I really love these ravens.
The ones shown here are just paper cutouts (the article includes a downloadable template) in glass vases, but you could do something a little more permanent using (depending on your budget) plastic or taxidermied specimens. You can usually find decent-looking crow props around Halloween, and they’re also available online from outdoor suppliers some toy companies.
Square glass vases are easy to find at florists and craft suppliers, although if you’re planning to display them in the bathroom or other high-humidity area you would probably want something sealed. You might look for cloches and bell jars or for the kind of glass case used for displaying dolls or other tall collectible items.
I like the varied height of the specimens in the example, so you might arrange one on the floor of the case, one on a rock or other low mount, and the last on a perch: For a “Victorian curiosity” look, a simple wooden T-shape is good (available at pet stores, or just make your own out of a couple of dowels), and an interesting branch is good for a more natural setting.
This sort of accent is the kind of “stealth goth” project that’s great if you want to inject a little darkness in your decor without being overt about it. The look is somber but sophisticated, letting you entertain dreams of Poe without making your in-laws nervous.
The book City of Shadows: Sydney Police Photographs 1912-1948 is a collection of period mug shots from the early part of the last century. Viewed through the filter of time, the results are haunting. (I don’t know what F. Schmelz there did in 1930 to get himself arrested, but the guy creeps me right out.)
The a time to get site has posted some images from the book, and a bit of googling–I was trying to find out what F. Schmelz did do–also turned up several more images and an essay at SCAN. These latter appear to be taken from the original police files instead of from the book.
These shots are an unusual source of inspiration for art or period photography. A collage of them would be an interesting wall display. I’m sure that in their time many of them were Very Bad People, but at this remove they seem almost ethereal.
This digital facsimile provides reproductions of all 157 miniatures (and facing text pages) from the Hours of Catherine of Cleves. The original one-volume prayer book had been taken apart in the nineteenth century; the leaves were shuffled and then rebound into two confusing volumes. This presentation offers the miniatures in their original, fifteenth-century sequence.
The Hours of Catherine of Cleves is the greatest Dutch illuminated manuscript in the world. Its 157 miniatures are by the gifted Master of Catherine of Cleves (active ca. 1435-60), who is named after this book. The Master of Catherine of Cleves is considered the finest and most original illuminator of the medieval northern Netherlands, and this manuscript is his masterpiece.
The images are simply chock-full of little demons (illustrating that the devil really is in the details). The scans are fairly high-resolution, and they’d be wonderful source material for all kinds of projects.
Every Heart a Doorway – Seanan McGuire’s newest book, about a boarding school for children who have found their way to faerieland and then been exiled back to the real world. BoingBoing has a review.
Sock Zombie – Video tutorial for making weird little zombies out of leftover socks.
House of MinaLima – London exhibit devoted to the graphic art in the Harry Potter movies.
Henning and Dick – Author Scott Meyer sends out occasional email newsletters. This recent pitch for a fictional TV show amused me vastly.
The Lesser Bot – “The Lesser Bot of Solomon offers you endless pages from a text in the style of Ars Goetia and the Pseudomonarchia Daemonum.” Twitter account which sort of looks like a Markov chain tripped over the Necronomicon. (Hat tip to Bruno)
The Nightmare – There’s a new documentary about sleep paralysis (“Old Hag Syndrome”), and Vice interviews the filmmaker.
There are things in the wilds of the intarwebs that make you quizzically cock your head to one side like a dog hearing a high-pitched whistle, and this is one of them.
Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best ones. Country Living Magazine featured a home 
The book 
The Morgan Library in New York is exhibiting the wonderful illuminated manuscript