I ran into these magnetic beaded decorations recently, and although they’re cute I take great exception to the vendor’s assertion that $39 for three is a “Budget-friendly way to decorate.”* These are just glass beads with a magnetic hanger, and for $39 you could make a hojillion of them.

Any decent-sized craft store should have most of what you need, but you can also find materials online: Beading thread, rondelle beads of your choice, a magnetic end bit (for which you could use magnetic jewelery clasps or magnetic beads; or skip the magnet and just tie a loop in the thread), and a Halloween figure of some sort.

Glass beads with a Halloween theme are plentiful and cheap; searching for “lampwork” or “glass bead” with your chosen shape will turn up ghosts, cats, bats, eyeballs, and whatever else your heart desires (you can also find hearts). The ghost and bat/cat shapes are also simple enough that they could be easily made of polymer clay.

These are so simple and cheap, you could make a bunch to hang or give as gifts. They’d be a great party activity for older kids, too; supply them with the materials and let them bead their own decorative favor.

*I also take exception to the “bat,” which looks a hell of a lot more like a cat with wings, but that’s another issue entirely.

Over at the Seeing Things blog, M.J. shares a simply lovely idea for spreading a little Halloween love.

Every year, a few nights before Halloween, my husband and I hop in the car and drive around the city looking for the best yard haunt we can find. When we finally spot the most horrifying, spine tingling, hair raising yard haunt that meets our pretty stiff criteria we stealthy approach the front door, in full costume, ring the bell and present the creator/owner of the yard haunt with a special little sumthin, sumthin for bringing delight to our Halloween. We have met the best people doing this, made some terrific friends and snagged some awesome haunt ideas!

She’s got instructions for creating a spooky-looking box full of creepy, edible treats: Icing roses, “coffin nails,” four kinds of “graveyard dirt” labeled with their cemeteries of origin, and much else. The execution is really clever; the coffin nails, for instance, are made of Pocky, cut in half and sharpened with a (clean) pencil sharpener. (I also love the idea of specialty cemetery dirt.) The post includes a detailed supplies list and downloadable labels to print.

I just adore this idea. Not only is it a great excuse to spend an evening driving around and admiring decorations, it allows you to reward people who have made a special effort to be spooky. As a bonus, you get the chance to meet like-minded people and perhaps even make new friends.

If an elaborately decorated box is a bit beyond your ambition (or if you think you might like to reward multiple houses), there are plenty of simpler alternatives. I’m a big fan of (clean) paint cans as a packaging option: They’re available very inexpensively at hardware stores and some craft supply stores (I’ve also seen clear plastic ones at craft stores), have a nice tight-fitting lid, and are easy to label and/or decorate.* You might also choose large Chinese takeout-style containers (also available at craft stores, often in the bridal section), cardboard craft boxes, or bundles tied up in Halloween-themed bandanas. Fill with a selection of candy and some cheap novelty Halloween items from a dollar store or a site such as Oriental Trading.

Then take to the streets and reward fellow spooksters. You’ll have fun, and they’ll appreciate their efforts being noticed.

*Paint cans are also a great choice if you want to “Boo” your neighborhood. If you aren’t familiar with that tradition, the nutshell version: Make up one or two baskets of Halloween goodies and leave them anonymously on neighbors’ doorsteps along with instructions to “boo it forward” by doing the same thing with other neighbors. Include a sign for them to hang in their front window so they don’t get re-booed by somebody else. There are sample signs and poems here.

In this splendid short film by Paul Constantakis, a child’s evil action figures get their comeuppance.

(via Laughing Squid)

Witch Fingers Grapes – New “artisan hybrid” grape variety with an unusual shape and awesome name.

Poe Shoes – Splendid shoes decorated with stamped Poe images. No instructions, but they look to be pretty easily DIY-able.

Snuggle Buddy – Adorable rescue bat and pal. (Hat tip to WitchArachne)

Itsy Bitsy – Short story by the author of Let the Right One In. The Kindle edition is free.

DanOFlorez – Etsy shop full of amazing handpainted shoes with themes like the Haunted Mansion and Hannibal Lecter.

The Scarecrow – Stunning ad for an app-based game sponsored by Chipotle, featuring a cover of “Pure Imagination” by Fiona Apple. That cow’s eyes are gonna haunt me.

Blood Bath – Charlotte of Gothacabre recently remodeled her guest bathroom.

Drink to the Dead – An artist is requesting our empty miniature liquor bottles as part of a war memorial. It’d be a shame to disappoint her.

Migratory Soul – (Top photo) Oddly serene painting of a hermit crab with an unusual shell.

Pink Skull Rain Boots – Cute lace-up boots by Betsey Johson. There are tattoo and rose varieties as well.

One nice thing about maintaining a sprawling web presence for many years is that you’re always discovering stuff that you completely forgot about tucked away in odd corners. I just ran across some files from The Great Chocolate Frog Project of ‘Ought One and figured that somebody else might be able to get some use out of ’em.

One year when Shadaughter was young and very much a fan of Harry Potter, she requested a Hogwarts-themed Halloween party. Many of the party details are lost to the mists of time, but one thing we made was Chocolate Frog party favors.

We used a candy mold to make the frogs, and packaged them in clear plastic envelopes. (In the film the frogs come in intricate little hexagonal boxes; our party was held a month before the first movie was released, so we didn’t have any of the movie details for reference. If you’d like to make boxes instead, this papercraft pattern should work nicely.)

Included in each envelope was a trading card which featured a famous wizard, complete with biographical details. Some bios were reasonably historically accurate; a few I made for my own amusement. For instance:

Merlin

Merlin tutored the young King Arthur and helped chart the course of British history. His use of the Soopergloo charm enabled only Arthur to pull a sword from a stone, thus winning him the throne. After Arthur was defeated by Mordred, Merlin went into show business. He is best known for his smash-hit musicals “No, No, Nimue” and “A Hard Day’s Knight.”

(I thought seriously about making the second musical title “Singin’ in Igraine,” but figured that some parent out there might have a degree in Medieval English literature and get offended.)

There’s a PDF of a few of the cards here, and I also have a .zip file which includes a Word document with all of the cards plus the freeware fonts used in their creation. Download, edit, and print as desired.

Bonus: Here are a couple of other random items I found in the same folder.

Halloween Countdown Clock – Javascript which counts down to Halloween and then automatically resets itself for next year. View the page source to grab the code and install it on your own page.

Random Haunt Name Generator – This is a Perl script I wrote ages ago to help members of my Halloween listserv come up with names for their haunts. “Grimgibber’s Parlor of Dread” and “Pageant of Maniacs” and “Doctor Cadaver’s Pit of Malice” and other silliness.

What a great idea for recycling old band T-shirts. ElderGoth Tina commissioned Anno Domini to upholster a chair using her collection of vintage band T-shirts. I’ve heard of turning beloved T-shirts into quilts or throw pillows, but the upholstery idea is new.

I don’t know how much the professional job cost–my guess is “lots”–but it’d be possible to DIY without enormous difficulty. Chairs with stained or torn fabric are cheap at thrift stores, so this project involves more time than money.

There are a number of tutorials for reupholstering chairs; a couple are here and here, and you can google up plenty of others. If re-covering a whole chair seems a little too daunting, you could do just the padded seats of dining chairs.

You’ll want to make careful measurements to decide how best to place the shirt elements in order to show them off to advantage. When cutting the T-shirts make sure to leave enough space around each design for a hem. Since the jersey-type fabric of most shirts is both stretchy and thin, it might be a good idea to anchor the pieces to a heavier-duty fabric intended for upholstery; your local fabric store can suggest good candidates.

This is a great way to both show off T-shirts that would otherwise languish in a drawer and add an interesting accent to a room.

This image has been widely shared across the intertubes, and a couple of months ago BoingBoing tracked the original concept back to an artist by the name of Ash Violette; the maker of the prototype is named as “DR.HC.”

The post about the initial concept art is here, and two followup posts with lots of photos are here and here. Unfortunately, that’s all they are: Photos. There are no details on how they were made (or, indeed, if they’re even edible or just “for show”). DR.HC.’s deviantART account has been deactivated, so there’s no information to be found there.

This is a crying shame, because these are just wonderful. (A couple of the best suggestions I’ve seen for using these is as part of an absinthe bar, and as a feature at a twisted Alice in Wonderland-themed tea party. How perfect is that?)

The skulls wouldn’t be too hard to replicate; Mexican Sugar Skulls sells a mini skull mold, and Wilton has a skull candy mold which has a more 3-D appearance. Mexican Sugar Skulls also has a recipe and instructions for making the skulls, although their site is so eye-searing that I’m paraphrasing it below:

Mix together 1 C granulated sugar and 1 tsp meringue powder*. Sprinkle mixture with 1 tsp water and blend thoroughly until all sugar is moistened. Pack tightly into molds, invert onto a flat surface (like a cookie sheet) and let dry. For colored skulls, mix a bit of paste food coloring into the water before adding it to the sugar.

(Incidentally, if making your own seems like too much work, there’s also an Etsy shop which sells the little skulls.)

I’m a little less sure about the long bones; they seem so skinny that I don’t think they’re made of packed sugar. In the photos they look a little smoother than the skulls, so I’m thinking they might be piped meringue. Meringue “bones” are a fairly common Halloween treat, so there are lots of recipes available; typical ones are here and here. (If you’re making your own skulls you’ll have meringue powder anyway, so you might also try using that instead of fresh egg whites.) Update: In the comments, xJane suggests SugarVeil for the bones. I’d never heard of this stuff, but it looks promising. Thanks, xJane!

Package in bags or little boxes, with pretty labels.

Bonus links: The artist’s site has a lot of other neat stuff too; like bone dominoes (which could be made with polymer clay) and Decadence playing cards featuring notable figures like Aubrey Beardsley and Charles Baudelaire.

*The brand of meringue powder used apparently makes a difference, since the stuff used for cake icing isn’t strong enough; they recommend the stuff produced by CK Products.

Stéphane Bouley has re-cast Monty Python and the Holy Grail as a modern blockbuster in this recut trailer.

This is an interesting example of the breed; usually when movies are “reimagined” in another genre, it isn’t difficult to envision the movie actually done in that style (a couple of my favorites are Scary Mary and Shining). Here, though, the inherent goofiness shows through, no matter how much dramatic music is thrown behind it.

Small Favors – Etsy shop with interesting candle scents like “Hellboy” and “Jack in the Green.” (Hat tip to Sisifo)

Dr Martens Cassidy Boot – Doc Martens with a subtle skull design. There’s a purple version I like better, but it only seems to be available on eBay.

Robocop Trailer – The first trailer for the remake.

Vincent Price Ring – This sterling silver ring “bust” is incredibly detailed.

Skeleton Backpack – I’ve mentioned this artist’s leather skull purses before; he’s now expanded to astonishing backpacks.

Machine Shaming – Like Dog Shaming, only for sewing machines. (via Cat)

Graveyard Quest – This long story arc in the webcomic Gunshow sounds intriguing.

The Bug Chef – David George Gordon’s Eat-a-Bug Cookbook has been revised and re-released. This article features an interview with him, plus a few interesting recipes.

Sweet Preserved Pumpkin – This Oaxacan sweet is definitely not something you can knock off in an afternoon, but it’s an interesting thing to do with a pumpkin.

The Moaning Words – Kickstarter for an interactive game based on the Cthulhu mythos.

Jenny the Bloggess was recently honored with a zombie likeness of herself in a Kickstarter-funded card game called They’re Coming. I’m not usually a fan of zombie art–too oozy–but I have to admit that this is pretty badass:

This particular piece was done by Tommy Arnold, whose art sort of puts me in mind of Frank Frazetta’s stuff (there are only a few pieces in his portfolio, but his blog has lots more). His site notes that he’s available for freelance work, so it might be possible to commission a piece similar to Jenny’s (I have no idea what the cost might be).

This would be a really unique way to commemorate a wedding or other special occasion. If zombies aren’t your thing there should be plenty of other options, from vampires to superheroes to gladiators. Smaller prints of the work would also be nice as wedding invitations or reception favors.