Haute Macabre mentioned that a bunch of similar ribcage-themed tank tops have been showing up on eBay recently (the one shown here is from All Season Tops), which are adorable and quite reasonably priced.

A quick Google search turns up loads of tanks embroidered or printed with ribcages (I like this one and this one), but the cutout design isn’t easy to find elsewhere.

If you want a different size or style than what eBay’s got to offer, a DIY version wouldn’t be too difficult. Sandwich stiff fusible webbing between two pieces of fabric, cut out holes for the ribs, and zigzag over the raw edges. Draw details with fabric paint or (if you’re really hardcore) embroidery stitches. Stitch the ribcage to the back of a tank top, then cut away the tank fabric behind the stitching line. Definitely more work than buying one premade, but also more customizable.

The Johnny Depp film The Ninth Gate was fairly forgettable, but its McGuffin was an “evil” book that would make an attractive decorative item.

Apocalyptic Productions has created a detailed tutorial for reproducing the book, including text, downloadable fonts, engravings, and instructions for aging and binding the pages.

Even if you don’t need an absolutely movie-accurate version of the prop, this is a great resource for making something like a personalized wedding guest book. You could also make a variety of “spellbooks” with intriguing titles, either as Halloween decorations or just to stack artfully in a bare corner.

Also check out their Biblioteca Apocalyptica page, where you can download text for the Necronomicon and De Vermis Mysteriis.

Gaming house Junction Point Studios appears to be working on a game which offers a rather apocalyptic take on Mickey Mouse and the Magic Kingdom.

Over at Oh No They Didn’t they’ve unearthed quite a bit of concept art and collected rumors of an upcoming game for the Wii codenamed “Epic Mickey.” If they actually realize the vision suggested in the preliminary drawings, this is going to be a beautiful and nightmarish game.

Now we just need to somehow convince Disney to let a few characters like “Zombie Goofy” wander around the park….

via (Topless Robot)
(Post title shamelessly stolen from a comment over at TR)

How to Dance Gothic – Be the hit of the batcave with moves like “Changing the Light Bulb” and “Testing the Scratching Post.”

DomiKNITrix – “Whip your knitting into shape.” Book which uses S&M-type language to explain knitting concepts. The author also has a blog, although it’s not updated all that often.

Horror Blogs You Should be Reading – Nice roundup from The Vault of Horror.

Personal Urns – Cremation urns personalized to look like the head of the deceased. These are astoundingly creepy.

Artist Darla Teagarden finally has her own site, but sadly it’s all in Flash and appears to be broken. You can see some of her lovely photography and read a bit more about her at Lady Lavona’s site.

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal – This cartoon made me giggle.

Frankensteinia – Blog devoted to all things Frankenstein-related.

Fontifier – Neat little site that lets you turn your handwriting or other doodles into a TrueType font. (Preview for free, download for $9.) This would be handy for personalizing invitations or greeting cards.

A Witch’s Craft – Network of witch crafters. No, really. It’s “a place to share your knowledge of the Craft in the context of crafts.”

Zombie Training Camp – Amusing video and commentary on a weird Japanese PR stunt.

Basic Instructions – This is simply wonderful.

Where the Deep Ones Are – “The Deep Ones croaked their terrible croaks and smacked their terrible lips and rolled their terrible eyes and waved their terrible flippers.”

Advent calendars are a popular way to count down to Christmas, but there’s no reason why that “other” holiday should have all of the fun. I’ve put together a tutorial for making a simple fabric calendar, but you can also modify DIY instructions for any Christmas advent calendar that strikes your fancy just by adding an extra row (you want 30 spots rather than 24).

Some ideas that I like include individual pouches on a swag, recycled Altoids, tea, and other tins, a wooden box with drawers (this is actually just a repainted version of a commerical Advent calendar; you might have to look a little harder to find a box with 30 drawers rather than 24), and an elaborate DIY version of a commercial Halloween countdown calendar.

You can put candy in each spot if you like, but you could also use plastic fangs, erasers shaped like pumpkins, bendy skeletons, or any other cheap novelty that catches your fancy. For a grown-up version, fill the calendar with treats like pumpkin truffles and black lipstick.

There are 80 days until Halloween, so you’ve got plenty of time to whip up a calendar in time for October 1.

(hat tip to Poopisan and Crypt Stitch)

A reader wrote me with a question about her upcoming Halloween wedding. I gave her a few suggestions, but figured I’d ask my wonderful and creative readers for their ideas as well.

Shauna asks:

My fiance and I are planning to get married October 23, 2010. We are planning on having a traditional nonreligious ceremony and a halloween themed reception. Our idea is to have a haunted house feel for our reception complete with the guest changing into costumes during cocktail hour. I am going to have a bit of trouble though. The colors. My fiance and I are having pink and green [like a rose petal pink and clover green] for the ceremony. Now, I know nothing of planning a wedding but I’m hoping its not going to be too tough trying to incorporate pink and green into a haunted house theme. As crazy as this may sound, it is important to us that we do have pink and green as the colors [I wanted black and orange but we decided on pink and green because we always invisioned those being our colors.] I was just wondering if maybe you had any suggestions as to how we could use pink and green in our haunted house theme. I’m very open to suggestions and I’m not trying to make the who reception in pink and green but I do want the colors some how incorporated.

What do you think? How would you incorporate some very non-haunty colors into a haunted reception?

I’m always amused when journalists contact me because they want to interview a representative Goth, not only because of the misconception that “goth” is some sort of monolithic single category but also because of the misconception that I represent anybody. (Did you guys know I’m your queen? Why aren’t you peeling me grapes?) The latest was Nerve.com, who feature a weekly column called “Sex Advice From…” where the “from” varies each week. This week was Sex Advice From Goths, and I was one of the individuals asked to provide input.

We’ll pause a moment for the laughter to die down.

The Nerve column is here. They give all of the participants 15 questions but only publish a subset of the answers due to space constraints, so if you’re interested in my continued ramblings on the subject my full set of answers is below. Proceed at your own risk.

Read the rest of this entry »

Dead Body Beach Towel – Goths aren’t really known for activities that might result in a tan, but just in case you’re in need of a beach towel, this is a good one.

Propnomicon – Blog that focuses on Lovecraftian props and artwork. The blogger also makes his own props, including some great Arkham University Expedition Patches.

Badass of the Week – Writeups of historical figures who engaged in some form of badassery. Educational!

Dead Gnomes – Decorate your garden with gnome statues that have been mutilated in creative ways.

Food for the Dead – Some cute party food ideas from Forkable.

Hey! – What if all the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park said “hi” instead of roaring? Here’s your answer.

The Zombie Preparedness Initiative – This site is “a knowledge base provided by a community of citizens concerned about the impending zombie invasion and the imminent disaster that is sure to follow.” The more you know!

Badder Homes and Gardens recently linked to these gold-plated skull placecard holders, priced at a mere $195 per pair.

This is a particularly headdesk-worthy item, because miniature plastic skulls and gold spray paint are cheap.

Anatomical used to carry a very inexpensive version with articulated jaws, but it’s not in their current catalog. They do offer a somewhat more expensive version which comes complete with a little model brain, and their “Mr. Thrifty” skulls are widely available from other vendors (such as here and here). Skeleton Store is also offering this bag of miniature skulls, but I can’t tell from the photo whether the jaws are hinged or not.

Spritz ’em with a little spray paint (make sure you get the kind that sticks to plastic), cover them with glitter, or tart them up however else you see fit. Write your guests’ names on little squares of cardstock (or use some of the fancy punch-out cards that fit in a computer printer), and you’re all set. For the $200 that the gold-plated skulls cost you could outfit a whole dinner party and you wouldn’t have to worry about guests pocketing the holders.