Haunted Design House

Do not adjust your monitors.  It is not a glitch.  And no... you are not hallucinating (or maybe you are).  It is I... The Masterful Mistress of the Macabre! Oh how I have missed this.  It has been so sad that I haven't been able to get my creep on this year and participate at HDH.  Life sometimes is a drag, and the mundane things like work,bills & drama unfortunately take the front seat. So, on to the good stuff for today!  This week we are sponsored by Rick St. Dennis .  I chose to work with his " Salome the Vampyr " and " Hexology " images... and they are fabulous: I apologize for the horrible photos... I just don't know how to adjust my camera when it comes to reds... they always end up REALLY bright.  Anyway, I know the color combo on this card is a bit different.  Red, purple, black & gold?  Yeah.  I had already colored her gown purple & hair black, so the robe needed contrast... it DOES pick up ...

As Summer is basically here, it makes me long for the cool, crisp evening air of Autumn and all that is dark and lovely.  However, HBO's True Blood is back in June with Season 5, so that is one of the FEW saving graces of Summer :)  And  since I'm already counting down to June 10th, I thought I'd go all vampish on a cute Saturated Canary digi:  Suzie Stockings   Me thinks I Goth'd her up just a bit.  I used Copic Toner Grays for the black, my favorite "dead" skin combo (BV23, BV20, C00), and for the red:  R39, R56, R37, R35.  The two papers are from Karen Foster, the glittery die-cut is from a LSS, May Arts bat trim, & who knows where the black heart brad came from :)  Did you notice I added a little rhinestone on her garter, too?  Love it. Her dress was really fun to color... all of those folds! The red is waaaay off in this photo.  Damn glitter & shimmery cardstock threw off the lighting. Krista wit...

Sourced from the Blood and Thunderclub blog . I don't know why Blogger has made it go blurry, I've tried to fix it but whatever I do it's still blurred :( You can see it large and unblurred HERE .

I recently came across the wondrous creations of Roy Villafane , all carved from pumpkins and gourds. Impressive, no? And no, they're not preserved in any way, just like yours, these decay and rot after a week or so! :o

Courtesy of channelate.com Yes, it may be in bad taste, but this tickles me :P

These guys make me laugh a lot, and I wasn't sure which particular image or comic to show you, but this is one that particularly amused me when I first saw it. It's by Cyanide and Happiness and you can see more of their quirky humour HERE .

Teri, don't read any further, you won't like it :P Today's FFF post is about La Isla de la Munecas, or the Island of the Dolls. It sounds like it should be full of pretty pink lace and plastic tea sets, doesn't it? Well, it's actually a macabre tourist attraction to the south of Mexico City, festooned with thousands of decomposing and mutilated dolls on display. The area is filled with canals and waterways, and in amongst these is a small uninhabited island. Don Julian Santana moved to this island in the 1950's, hoping to find peace and refuge from the modern world. However, he came to believe that the island was haunted by the ghost of a young girl who had drowned in one of the canals in the 1920's. Reports vary, but the dolls are either for the little girl's ghost to play with, or to ward off other evil spirits that roamed the area and which were scaring the little girl. Either way, the hermit would fish out old dolls he found in the canals and place t...

Meep, I nearly forgot it was Friday today, and we couldn't leave you without a bit of fiendish fun to start your weekend, so here's A Softer World by Emily Horne and Joey Comeau . A touch of surreality (?) to go with our Dali challenge :P Copyright © 2010 by Emily Horne and Joey Comeau

You can see more adventures starring this not-so-cheerful little chappie HERE :)

**This post will remain at the top until May 6th... for newer posts, please scroll down** But before we get to the candy, please read: The NOT-so- Masterful Mistress of the Macabre here.  I have been so damn busy with work and other responsibilities that I have neglected necessary blog housekeeping duties & announcing quite a few of the last Masters of the Macabre .  So I guess it's about time for me to dig through my big box of scraps and reward you guys... and you'd BETTER like it... just sayin'.  >':) Stay tuned for that announcement later this week. Ok, now on to the reason why you clicked over here... mmmm.... BLOG CANDY Haunted Design House has officially hit 400 Stalkers!   YEAY!  Who knew that there were so many fan- freakishly -tastic people out there ;)  So to celebrate, I am offering up this bit of fiendishly fun goodies: Items include: orange rub-on letters, pleather card-keeper handbag, blank mini-album, three sheets of Grun...

Yes, you read that correctly... another challenge with sooooooooo many of our HDH Macabre Monday participants in mind ;)  Wanna win some zombie rubbah for FREE ?!!!!  Of course you do... just head over to   Simply Betty Stamps Challenge blog   for all the deets and then linky-up your project! Here' my offering for this challenge: Zombie Lola ... don't you LOVE the look on her face?!  Well, the look on what's left of her face anyway ;) A little BV20's for dead skin R85 & R83 for the fleshy parts BG49, BG15, BG13, BG11, BG10 for the outfit Toner greys for black and a few bright YG's for the hair And the "meat-atarian" sentiment ?  LOVE it :)  It's a new one from a fellow SBS DT'er, Cheri!  She has a bunch of great ones at her Graphicat site... you should check them out :)

After the floods in Pakistan last year, millions of spiders took to living in trees to escape the waters. Because in some areas, the waters have taken so long to recede, it has left trees blanketed with spiderwebs, to the point that they look shrouded for burial. One unexpected side-effect is a reduction in the number of malaria-sufferers in regions where this phenomenom has occurred. It's thought that mosquitoes are getting caught in the webs. So the next time your friends or family moan about your creepier tendencies, point out that they may have unexpected health benefits, you just never know. And yes, I know this post isn't as laugh-filled as you usually get on Fridays, but I just thought that the pictures of these trees were astounding.

Thanks to Sarah Cooper for bringing this bit o' macabre to the Minnions' attention. Kittiwat Unarrom is the creative genius behind Thailand's Body Bakery, where you can buy his totally edible and gruesomely realistic bread sculptures. Seriously, they're made from bread, not torture victims :P Now all you have to decide is whether you want your morning toast to be a crust piece or a brain piece :P

Isn't this magnificent? It was made by missmonster , and you can see lots more of her work on DeviantArt by clicking her name or her online shop . The face/ears/claws/teeth are all hand sculpted and hand painted and the fur is airbrushed.

I stumbled across this fabulously fun online shop, Pushin Daisies ,  while surfing the net awhile back.  It was started by a licensed funeral director... so it's GOT to be good, right? There are so many awesome finds, that I can't show them all here... you'll just have to go check them out yourself!  But here are few choice gems: Yard art just got more fun :) How's this for a wedding cake topper?! Nothing says chocolate like a skeleton in a coffin, right? Me thinks these ice trays are a MUST! And a whole page of skull items ... especially love the skull grapes :) And the poison casket ring really gives me the warm fuzzies. Giftie giving just got easier :)

... sounds kinda dirty, doesn't it?  ;)  MUCH more fun than just a mere birthday bloghop, no?  Me & a couple of the Minions are doing a little Fiendishly Festive Friday Frolic to honor the Devious Digital Demoness ' birthday today, Susan !  Susan does SO much for HDH, from writing up the challenge posts, to finding WONDERFUL little gems for Fiendishly Fun Fridays, to cracking us up with comments and suggestions.  We love ya' baby! I know this little card isn't much, and of course you won't be receiving it in the mail today, but you will eventually!  I had hoped to create some bit of awesomeness like Creepy Glowbugg, but time once again slipped away from me... and she has all of that natural talent an all :P All of the stamps are from The Angel Company , Palette inks, EK Success edger punch, Cricut diecut fence & of course... Stickles.  Susan loves purple and sparkly things, so there you go :) Happy Birthday, Susan!  I hope today ...

Mariel Clayton is an artist and photographer who delights in showing us Barbie's serial-killer alter-ego. I love, love, love this work, for the full range click her name :)!