Imagine if you dedicated an entire day to creating a Halloween project. What couldn’t you make with 20-30 hours and a vision? Norma Jean spends that much time on each one of her handmade horror dolls, giving attention to the smallest details. They are totally one of a kind, and she even sculpts the heads, hands and feet herself. All that handmade TLC is going to cost you, but sometimes you have to splurge for art. (Plus, supporting spooky artists is a always a good thing.) There are such gory categories as dolls with head injuries, mad scientists, and perhaps my favorite, the skeletons convicts.
If you’ve got a barren chamber door, she also has super detailed, ornate Halloween wreaths available. Actually, they’re kind of like Halloween exploded into a wreath shape with all the activity going on (and I mean that in a good way). If you’ve got a specific style in mind, she does take custom orders but be sure to plan at least 2 weeks ahead.
It’s March 1st, kids: only 8 months left! 2007 has unofficially been dubbed “The Year of the Zombie”, with numerous movies slated for release, which is in turn inspiring all sorts of creepy, crawly products. Naturally, we’ve been brainstorming ideas daily for this year’s Halloween decor theme and I wanted to share some of our newest online finds with y’all.
First up are some magnet sets from Sick on Sin. You have to love a store that knows Every Day is Halloween! If you dig their illustration style you might also enjoy the Zombie Love set of buttons.
In an effort to line the walls in everything zombie we’ve stumbled upon Atomic Monkey Design and their zombie posters*. My favorite, although a rather morose message, is the “Better One in the Head than the Living Dead” poster shown at left. Is it wrong that I immediately envision hanging this above my bed? Probably, but for a zombie lover it’s too cool a phrase and artwork to pass up. Reminds me of a car I once saw driving that had a “redead the undead” bumper sticker. I was so shocked that someone a) created and b) bought such an awesome zombie-related item that I almost got in an accident trying to get another look at it.
For those of you not on Fright Catalog’s mailing list; their spooktacular savings sale has been extended until 3/20/07. Get up to 25% off by entering in the coupon code FCSALE during checkout. I suggest some Gortraits (gruesome morphing portraits) to add the extra creepyness that your hallway walls have been moaning for.
Finally, these amazingly illustrated Spider Portrait cards definitely fit the “creepy, crawly” bill, and would make a great surprise for a fellow Halloweenie. Imagine waking up one overcast March morning, cursing the calendar for separating you from Halloween, and then finding a member of the Spider Family in your mailbox. The images are actually sewn onto card stock, which looks amazing, and makes them ideal for framing if you can’t bear to part with the cards. Available from the awesomely named Head Explodie.
*[via Retro Crush]
With Halloween so many months away, we’re always on the lookout for more landmarks to help us make it through the year. Back in September we wrote about the impending debut album from the fantastically creepy Creature Feature. Five months of nail biting later, Curtis and Erik have finally unleashed The Greatest Show Unearthed upon the world. Like Halloween, it was well worth the wait.
The album immediately sets the mood with the pop and hiss of an old recording, a ghostly circus calliope, and a monologue from Curtis’ dastardly ringmaster character. Suddenly, you are entering their Dark Carnival, wide eyed for the wonders that might be in store. The musical depth of the album is established a few moments later, as the duo manages to create a rich combination of music, character voices, and assorted sounds that seem to come from an entire circus full of ghouls. What’s even more impressive is the fact that Curtis and Erik write, perform, record, produce, mix, and master all of their own music “without any help from outside sources”. While they have both been in bands before, such a well-crafted debut album, especially one that was independently released, is a rarity. Every aspect is top-notch, from Curtis’ vocal range and fiery guitar solos to Erik’s deft use of the keyboard and various electronic background sounds. Their extreme dedication to following their vision, unhindered by a record label or other “handlers”, is undoubtedly responsible for the solidity of the album.
Creature Feature definitely has a focus in the macabre song topics that it explores, but unlike most bands with a theme or novelty aspect, their music has a versatile range. Borrowing from rock and electro they have created a sound that is beyond a simple “gothic rock electro” hybrid. They’re very visual artists and each of their songs invokes a mental image and feeling that draws the listener into their storyline. When you listen to Aim For The Head, you’re tempted to check your windows for the scraping fingernails of the undead. In Such Horrible Things, each of the wicked transgressions comes to life, and yet invokes a little conspiratorial smile from the listener. Their love of B-movies and vintage Sci-Fi à la Ray Bradbury flavors the entire landscape of songs, and in the near future it should spill into the music videos and movies that they are dying to create.
Around Halloween, the search for creepy tunes often leads even the most musically discerning of us to trite standbys (Monster Mash anyone?) or bands that are well-themed but unappealing musically. With Creature Feature you get the whole package: an album perfect for a Halloween party, but catchy and meaty enough to earn a place in your daily CD rotation. Grab a copy of The Greatest Show Unearthed for $15.99 post-paid through their website.
We love zombies, you love zombies, so let’s just all rejoice in the many choices of zombie inspired t-shirts. These are all from Threadless and I have to say I’m impressed.
These first few designs are the only ones you can actually purchase and wear as of right now.
The designs below aren’t actually for sale, but they were submitted by designers and could have been made available if they got better votes. So browse through these and then vote on new deisgns you think are worthy of being printed. You can even request that some designs be re-printed once they’re out of stock.
Don’t forget to act fast because Threadless only prints limited numbers of each design. That’s what makes the shirts so unique and their stock so fresh.
I think it’s probably that other huge holiday that encourages the spirit of giving, but Ray from Raven’s Blight wants to share some Halloween freebies with you anyway. In addition to the 300+ spooky paintings, illustrations, and other artwork on display at his site, he also offers an ever-growing collection of free Halloween paper crafts. Using cardstock paper, you print out his intricate artwork, do some careful cutting and gluing, and you’ve created your own Hearse Playset, Deluxe Coffin Giftboxes, or Zombie Mask. There are tons of designs available beyond those, including other masks and playsets, board games, dice games, mini monsters, and book covers. It’s a fantastic resource for Halloweenies and those interested in “goth art”. The projects range from simple to “you’ll spend all afternoon on this”, so you can undoubtedly find activities to keep you and your kids occupied as you countdown the last few days to Halloween.
There is also a free Haunted Cottage available from Free Digital Scrapbooking. The cottage displays your pictures in its windows and is “only the first in a larger collection you can purchase and download to create an entire spooky village”. The Spooky Shack is also available for purchase.
Don’t have an awesome printer? How about a tree? Using this fairly simple tutorial you can learn to transform maple leaves into a bouquet of firey Autumn-colored roses. Since you can use many other materials besides maple leaves, the possibilities are endless with this idea. I would like to see a creepier version made from dark or painted leaves, swaddled in some cheesecloth or other rags. What a perfect bouquet for a Corpse Bride costume.
Looking for more original horror t-shirts to add to your collection? Fright-Rags has a good selection of well designed horror shirts of your favorite cult classics, creature features and slasher movies. These shirts are exclusive to Fright-Rags so you can’t get them anywhere else.
Being a huge zombie fan, I was initially drawn to the Obey (zombies make great social commentary) and Johnny shirt that says the classic line “They’re coming to get you Barbara!” Oh how right Johnny was. I also admire the simplicity of design on everyone’s cult favorite Ash (from Evil Dead), and Frankenstein.
I’m also really liking the Trick or Treat design based on looks alone. I have to admit I didn’t even know what movie it was from until I looked it up. It’s from a 1986 flick entitled Trick or Treat, that is “meant to be a parody of teen-horror-devil-worship movies”. The looks of this shirt, the rock and roll star cameos, the user comments, and description of the movie all tell me I’ve got to rent this soon.
Also worth checking out: Your Zombie Cafe Press store. Tons of Shaun of the Dead designs, and other zombie related shirts.
