For those of us into graphic arts or Web design, Smashing Magazine has a nice article entitled “The Secrets of Grunge Design.” There are lots of tips for grungifying a site, including a sample color palette and a list of grunge elements. There’s also a gallery of sites for inspiration.

If you’ve been looking for a way to make your own site a little more dark and unique, this would be an excellent jumping-off point.

The Easter Bunny is going to be hopping along the bunny trail a couple of weeks from now, and you know what that means?

Yeah, rabbit stew. But what else?

That’s right! Monster eggs! The Shadowfamilia has a long tradition of spooking up our Easter eggs, which is fun and makes the relatives nervous. Come…join us!

You will need:

• Wax crayons; the color doesn’t really matter since you’ll be wiping it off anyway. A color that contrasts with the egg color is nice, since then you can see what you’re drawing.


• Paper towels or old rags


• Egg dyes


• Slotted spoon or coathanger bent in a loop


• Cooking oil (optional)


• Hard-boiled eggs (duh)

Use the crayon to draw a pattern on an egg, making sure that the lines are nice and heavy. We like to draw Frankenstein stitching, vampire fangs, or ghoulish faces; think pumpkin carving, only smaller and eggier.

Put egg in dye and let sit for a while. It’s preferable to use a dark color for this step, since you’ll be dipping the egg in another color later.

Remove with slotted spoon, pat dry, and place in a 200F oven for a few minutes until the wax is melted.

Wipe off the wax and dip into a lighter color of dye to fill in the pattern where the wax was. Fish out and pat dry.

If desired, use cooking oil to polish up the finished eggs.

Green eggs with yellow stitching, black eggs with white fangs, yellow zombie eggs, red eggs with horns (those would be deviled eggs)…the possibilities are legion.

Sure, you could use the same method to draw pretty flowers and butterflies, but why would you?

Ooh! Doing a search on “scary Easter egg” turned up these and these. How adorable!

Lio cartoonist Mark Tatulli lists Gahan Wilson and Charles Addams amongst his influences, as if that weren’t already obvious.

This is a dark-humored strip involving a little boy who makes Pugsley Addams look like Pollyanna. His pet is a landgoing giant squid, he makes friends with the monsters under the bed, and he continually mystifies his normal-seeming father.

I can see Shadowboy turning out like this, except for the “normal-seeming father” part.

Fun!

Link

Artist Dave Devrie has an unusual sideline: Converting small children’s doodles into amazingly creepy oil paintings. There are several examples on his site, plus he’s published a book.

It’s surprising how evocative and disturbing the kids’ drawings become when translated into oils. Childishly out-of-scale proportions and missing features suddenly seem ominous and threatening.

I may never look at Shadowboy’s scribbles the same way again.

Link (via Halloween Hotlist)

At first blush, zombies may not seem like an ideal role model. But have you ever heard one complain? Then check out this guide to living your life the zombie way! Highlights include:

• How to adapt to anything life (or the living) throws at you
• How to slow down
• How to find strength in numbers (Zombie Horde, anyone?)
• How to make each word count (zombies want brains, zombies say “brains”)

Also covers the 24 habits of highly effective zombies and a 90-day guide to a better, more zombified you.

(I love that ThinkGeek lists this book as “Genre: How To – Undead Philosophy.” :::giggle:::)

Link

Eric Ruhling, the author of a history of torture implements entitled Infernal Device, has branched out with a coloring book. Each of the 20 line drawings is accompanied by a rhyme.

I’m not necessarily recommending that you introduce your four-year-old to the concept of a scold’s bridle (wait until he’s at least five), but if you like to color you might frame a few as conversation pieces.

Link (via BoingBoing)

The news headline read, “Jack the Ripper Returns,” but disappointingly there’s no copycat carving up Whitechapel.

This April 3 will be the 120th anniversary of the first murder officially attributed to Jack the Ripper, and London’s Museum in Docklands is running a special exhibition about the murders from May 15 to November 2.

From police files and photographs to letters from the public and the supposed Ripper himself, examine, for the first time, surviving documents and artefacts from the investigation and follow the crimes as they unfolded.

Step back in time to the labyrinth of late-Victorian Whitechapel, and uncover the human stories behind the sensational reports and explore the lives of the victims, witnesses, suspects and police, and the world they lived in.

I was a college exchange student at Cambridge in 1988, the 100th anniversary of the murders, and Ripperphernalia was everywhere; you couldn’t walk down the street without running into morgue photos.* I also discovered that I was born on the 80th anniversary of the final murder, permanently interesting me in the case in a half-assed sort of way. (In other words, I know a goodly amount about the case, but not a creepy amount about the case.)

Anyway, if you’re planning on being in London, the Docklands exhibition looks intriguing and you might want to check it out.

This would also be a good year to have a Ripper-themed Halloween party. Have your guests come in their finest Victorian garb and party like it’s 1899.


*If an entire generation of London youth grows up slightly twitchy, we need look no further than the Ripper’s 100th Anniversary marketing team.

ThreadBanger has a nice tutorial for making a corset, including instructions for creating a pattern customized to your measurements.

Whether you’re going for demure Victorian or sinister sex goddess, a corset can help get you there. Making your own takes a little time, but it’s much cheaper than buying one and gives you the opportunity to use interesting fabric choices.

The corset in this tutorial doesn’t include boning, but it’s easy to add. The Fashionable Past has instructions for a boned corset.

If you’d prefer to work from a commercial pattern, check out Beginner Costuming or Corset Making Supplies for patterns, supplies, and tips.

Corsets fall into the category of “things that look harder than they actually are,” so don’t be daunted. Go get some pretty satin and an eyelet tool and you’ll have your own custom-tailored corset in no time.

The UK’s Channel 4 has a series entitled “City of Vice,” which is essentially a cop drama set in Georgian London. Their Website features a Flash-based game called “Bow Street Runner” which asks you to join the squad and solve crimes in grimy, squicky, 1750s Covent Garden.

The game is episodic; you can ask to be alerted by e-mail when the next episode is available. It also warns that it is “designed to be historically accurate and therefore the game’s content and its setting may not be suitable for younger players.”

This looks like a game that would be interesting to play, give you a taste of London in the period 50 years before Charles Dickens and Jane Austen, and make you insanely grateful for indoor plumbing.

Link (via BoingBoing)

Did I say I have a lot of drafts? I have a lot of drafts.

Garage of Evil – This is a resource site designed for “home haunters,” but it’s got a number of gothy project tutorials, including how to cast skulls from plaster and how to make your own toe-pincher coffin.

Three Fates T-shirts – The Anticraft’s collection of T-shirts includes a sly nod to the Greek Fates’ obvious hobby: Sewing! I want the Atropos/She Who Cuts shirt.

Creepy Yarn Sculpture – I don’t know what the hell this is, but it wigs me right out.

Gorgeous Light Fixture – I admit it: If I had the money, I’d be living in a big Dracula-esque castle (only with central heating). And I would decorate exclusively with stuff like this.

Hair Bow Tutorial – Marie has posted a nice guide for making professional-looking hair bows. These would be cute made with novelty Halloween ribbon or decorated with little skull beads instead of plain buttons. (She’s oddly sensitive about the popularity of this tutorial, so if you go visit pretend you’re looking for something else instead.)

Halloween Carnival – Craft Critique did a two-day roundup of spooky projects, including votive covers, pillow boxes, and lots of other neat ideas that could be used for year-round decoration.

The Explorers – Artist Jennifer Zwick does amazing “Constructed Narrative” photographs of children in surreal settings. I love this one and the adventure it implies.

My new favorite tutorial title: How to Make an Axolotl Cake. So many questions!

999 Crafty Haunts – DIY Life has an awesome article about the Haunted Mansions at various Disney parks, along with lots of photos and decorating ideas.

Costco Coffins – Yeah, I didn’t know they did this either.