Haunted Design House

THE BAT by Theodore Roethke   By day the bat is cousin to the mouse. He likes the attic of an aging house. His fingers make a hat about his head. His pulse beat is so slow we think him dead. He loops in crazy figures half the night Among the trees that face the corner light. But when he brushes up against a screen, We are afraid of what our eyes have seen: For something is amiss or out of place When mice with wings can wear a human face.     This week the challenge is to use bats as your m(o)use.   I have been busy working on a set of Hallowe'en ornaments, and just so happen to have sculpted a bat for the set. How timely.   As you can see, this a creepy cute bat. Or maybe it's just a black hairless hamster, with wings.  I sculpted him out of polymer clay and used glass beads for the eyes. I used a satin finish glaze for the wings, nose and ears, to give them a different, leathery-type texture.  He...

****   If you played along with our "Oh my gourd!" challenge **** you may be one of six lucky winners . Check this post to see if you won. So far, only half the winners have responded. You only have until this Sunday, the 7th to claim your prize. We need to get them posted in time for the holiday!!     So, have you heard that Cryptocurium is our Macabre Monday sponsor this week? What is Cryptocurium , you ask? Well, it's a candy store that caters to the Lovecraftian epicurean sweet tooth .    Check out this post to see all the sweet pics and details.    I am still working on my Cryptid for this week, so I'll just get to the meat of the post and announce the Gruesome Twosome from last week's Chain me up, chain me down challenge.   Congratulations to   Kristy Lee   and   Nancy   Thank you to everyone who plays along with us every week. It's comfort...

Due to my (un)healthy obsession with television and my (un)natural love of my DVR, I am officially a TV junkie. I record so much TV every week, but I do manage to watch some really cool and strange and funny shows that I would probably miss if I had to rely on the antiquated way of watching TV. One of my favorite shows to watch is " Lost Girl " on Syfy channel. At first I wasn't feelin' it, as it started right after " Being Human " and I had a hard time transitioning from werewolves and vampires, to the world of the light and the dark Fae. Huh? Isn't that the premise for " True Blood "?  Anyhoo, as result of my having a girl crush on "Kenzie" (the main character's sidekick),  I was inspired for this week's challenge. Yup! That was me!!     "Who are you callin' a Succubus?!"   What exactly IS a Succubus you ask? In folklore traced back to medieval legend, a succubus (plura...

It is the middle of the week already. Have you started your project for this week's challenge yet? Hiding in the Corners is the challenge. All you need to do is make something sinister and adorn the corners. Easy enough? I chose to indulge myself, and feed my latest crafting addiction. A rtist T rading C ards. I used Ike's "Honey" image for this serial killer inspired card. Gotta love a crazy hott bitch with a meat cleaver! Blood splatters and all corner adornments accounted for. For this little masterpiece, I have used another of Ike's images called, "WitchyMou". Isn't she wonderfully horrible?! I mounted the image onto an old dictionary page starting with " blood root ". I highlighted the bloody words with some Brick and Worn Lipstick Distress Inks and a water painter.   I used some Y26 &Y28 on her teeth and then used a glaze pen to give them a slimy sheen. I did the same for her ey...

It's that time of the week where I try to entice you with my wares. The Macabre Monday challenge this week is Freaker's Free for All and we are sponsored by   I used a few Tiddly Inks images for this one. I used  "Vamp Me" as my main image. I also used the  headstone and the coffin from the Vampire extras pack. I attached everything to a floral oval Spellbinder and added some paper fleurs for that overall Gothic feel. I am not a big Vampire fan (I like the dirty werewolves better- like Alcide Herveaux), but this is a sweet image, perfect for the newer generation of Gothic glamourists and Vampyr lovers. The challenge is anything goes, so why not play along with, well, anything!!! As long as it's Hallowe'en or Gothic in nature, we'd love to see it! And now the moment you've all been waiting for, the naming of the Gruesome Twosome from last week's Movie Madness challenge. Congratulations ...

This week we are sponsored by  Smeared Ink They have offered up a very generous prize of a $15 digi shopping spree in their shop!  The Macabre Monday challenge this week is to use some sort of distressing on your project. Super duper easy, right?!   I chose this little candy corn monster to work with. He is so cute in a slobbery and chopped off head kinda way. I am in love with this guy. Or maybe it's just his little teefs. I used some distressed paper from a random Hallowe'en paper pack, I added a distressed bit of the cover from a TH Hallowe'en paper pack, and worked it over pretty good with a sanding block and the TH distressing tool. I think I like using scissors better. I added some cool webbed ribbon in green and black and even snuck in that bug ribbon that I bought last season and never managed to work it into a project. You still have until Sunday at 5PM, CST to enter to win a $15 digital shopping spree at Smeared Ink!!! ...

This week's Macabre Monday theme is turning out to be quite the challenging challenge.  C opy A nd S teal E verything from one of the Minion's brilliant DT samples this week. We even made it a little easier by allowing you to just pull inspiration from one of the Minions, but make sure it is obvious who you are CASE ing.  I didn't even try to make it any easier with my sample. It's really cool though, huh? Surprise, surprise! I went with a zombie angel theme. I hand painted and zombified each rotten little cherub (5 of them), and then affixed them to each side of this cute little jewelry box that I also repainted and made fancy. I put together a little collage piece where the photo is supposed to go, that matches the theme perfectly. A little red Stickles to make the blood sparkle, and this project is fini!  Inside shot of the box. Where else are you going to put your brain rings?! ...