truebluemeandyou: Halloween & Cosplay DIYs

DIY NO SEW Spooky Gray Ghosts

somnambulant-seraphim​:

Aaron Kuehn’s Skeleton and Muscle Typograms - Free PDFs for Wall Art 

Updated 2022

Find the Skeleton Typogram by Aaron Kuehn here. You can print your own free PDF under these conditons: 

You can also buy a print here:

Find the Free $10 PDF Muscle Typogram by Aaron Kuehn here. 

Here are more Typograms from Aaron Kuehn:

Viral by Aaron Kuehn

Brain Typogram by Aaron Kuehn

DIY Cheap, Easy & Creepy Specimen Shadow Boxes 

UPDATED Oct 2022

Tutorial with Free Labels Printable from Seeing Things here. *BLOG IS GONE. 

Download printables ASAP when you see them.  

THIS IS NOT MY TUTORIAL.

It is a snapshot of a tutorial that no longer exists from Seeing Things on the WayBack Machine. I feel I owe it to my thousands of readers who reblogged this and pinned this tutorial to publish this. The tutorial has been shortened.

Creepy Collections - Shadow Boxes

Creepy, little shadow boxes filled with bugs, bats and werewolf fangs will add the perfect touch to your macabre Halloween decorating. They are so fun and so cheap to make,

You are only limited by your imagination. Everything is real if you want it to be…even dead fairies.

Bag of Flies and Bag of Bugs - Just stick and pin them.

You are only limited by your imagination. Everything is real if you want it to be…even dead fairies.

Bag of Flies and Bag of Bugs - Just stick and pin them.

Small plastic eggs - Factorydirectcraft.com. Colored with felt markers.  Shave a bit off one side of the egg, glue down.

Small skeletons, crumpled brown paper wings, wool bits for hair. I hear them rattlin’ around in the box at night!? I’ve had a few emails about this shadow box…seems people don’t like dead fairies. For those that believe, fairies can never die they are ethereal beings. This post was a fun nod at the 

Dead fairy hoax

 an April Fools’ Day prank in 2007. Dan Baines, a sculptor and illusion designer, managed to sell his creation, the fake corpse of a fairy, on an internet auction for nearly £300. Long live the fairies and our sense of humor!

Bag of Cockroaches and Bag of Insects - Spirit Halloween, just stick em’ and pin em’.

Bag of Bats - Spirit Halloween, just stick em’ and pin em’.

Fang Bracelet from Dollarama - break apart, paint a few white, glue and pin down.  Start by picking up a few of these $2 wooden shadow boxes, I got mine at the Dollarama. If you are in the U.S. check out your local Dollar Stores for something similar. They measure 91/4" x 7" x 21/4".  ( 25cm x 18cm x 3.5cm)

Raid your local Dollar Stores, Dollarama, Dollar Giants and Halloween supply stores for all the creepy critters you can find, bug, flies, little skeletons, bats, teeth…you get the idea! 

For Printables go to the post I’ve linked on the WayBack Machine and click on the link there.

How To: 

1. Apply either black paint or wood stain to each shadow box covering all wood surfaces. If it makes the process easier and neater mask of the glass on both sides with painters tape.

2. Apply a coat of varnish (not necessary- your choice).

3. From black foam core board cut a piece that will fit snugly into your frame. This will be the backing on which all your creepy critters will be glued and pinned.

4. Trace around the foam core piece onto a piece of grunge-style scrapbook paper. Cut out and adhere to the foam core piece itself.

5. Apply glue to the inside of the frame and push the foam core/grunge paper stack into place. Let it dry for a few minutes.

6. Print and cut out the labels. Gather your creepy critters and lay everything out in the frame. 

Don’t pin or glue anything down until you have spaced everything out.

Once your satisfied, shut the door and see that everything is visible and not hidden behind the door frame, glue and/or pin your critters into place.

NOTE: You may have to use a  pair of pliers to nip a segment off of the pin so that it goes through the foam core but does not stick up so far that the door cannot close.

7. Apply a picture hook to the back and hang.

DIY Plastic Bottle Bell Jar Cloche from Seeing Things  

Updated Link 2022  

This is not my tutorial, but screenshots from the WayBack Machine. 

I wanted to add a set of bell jars to my apothecary this year but was so disappointed with the high prices being charged at various stores.  I really wanted more than just one which made a collection of jars very cost prohibitive. After laying awake one night (doesn’t take much to keep me up) I came up with the “poor man’s” rendition of a bell jar. I’m pretty happy with the way they turned out! By the way a “real” bell jar is a piece of laboratory equipment used for creating air-less vacuums. Usually it is the shape of a bell, and can be manufactured from a variety of materials such as glass, plastic and metal. The Victorians were particularly fond of using bell jars to display their most cherished possessions. If you would like to make your own here is what you’ll need. (Please note: costs quoted reflect CDN $)

Remove Bottom of Bottle

Please use caution in the following steps to avoid personal injury! Using a craft knife cut the bottom section of the bottle off by following the raised line. Using scissors cut around the bottom edge evening it out. Place the bottle on the cut edge, trim any areas that cause the bottle to shift in a crooked fashion. Continue trimming until the bottle standscorrectly (as perfectly upright as possible). Clean and dry the inside of the bottle. 

Remove Top of Bottle Using a mini-hobby saw or another cutting instrument appropriate for the job, cut the threads at the top of the bottle off as shown in the photo.

Attach Bubble Ball Topper Squeeze a bead of Glossy Accents around the cut rim of the bottle.Gently attach a bubble ball by positioning it over the glue line and pressing down lightly. Leave to dry completely.

Apply Foam Core Base Measure the diameter of the cut edge of the bottle. Add 1/2” to this measurement. Using a compass draw two circles on the foam board matching the calculated measurement. Mine came in at 5” (12.8cm). Glue the two circles together. Cover the cut edges of the foam core with black ribbon, use white glue or tack in place with black wire bent in a “u” shape and pushed into the foam. 

Prepare Styrofoam Stand The following step will depend on what you plan to put inside the bell jar. If you require a stand cut a piece of Styrofoam that will fit inside the jar with enough room around it to add moss and still be able to comfortably replace the bell jar over it. Glue the stand in place then cover with moss. Keep moss in place by pushing small pieces of wire bent in “u” shapes into the Styrofoam. Creepy cloth may also be used to cover the base. 

Decorate Inside of Jar Fill your bell jar with your favorite things. Trek outside for a few “found” objects. How about a few creepy Halloween creatures or tell a story with purchased or created miniatures. Have fun!! Enjoy!

3 Dollar Store Baby Doll Halloween Crafts

Jen from EPBOT has so many Dollar Store Halloween DIYs in this post HERE - a tour of her house with all its Halloween decor. These Dollar Store DIYs are all so clever, cheap, and easy to make!

Find all the tutorials at EPBOT here.

DIY Concrete Vampire Rocks

These are from Made by Barb blogger. Barb has got to be one of the consistently prolific DIY bloggers out there. She has so many tutorials on concrete creatures, mold making, sewing projects, eco printing, eco dyeing, felting, quilting, and the list goes on and on.

Find the tutorial for these DIY Concrete Zipper Vampire Rocks from Made by Barb here.

More Concrete Creatures by Made by Barb

I posted her tutorial for the DIY Concrete Rock Peepers by Made by Barb here.

Another one of her tutorials I posted was for her DIY Concrete Smiling Rocks here.

DIY Halloween or Valentine’s Day Witches’ Spell Napkins

Make these napkins as gifts or use for a special meal. These are some Witches’ Spells’ clipart you can download from Me and Annabell Lee’s Etsy Store here.

Find the DIY for Halloween or Valentine’s Day Witches’ Spell Napkins from Me and Annabelle Lee here.

DIY Inspiration: Resting Place Cemetery Terrarium

Updated 2019

Twig Terrariums is closing, but their gallery is still up here, and they have a book out called “Tiny World Terrariums”.

You can still find this $75 Zombie-arium at Twig Terrariums here.

See my since added post on miniature tombstones here.

You can find more DIY Miniature Tombstones at the Herb Graveyard Tutorial by PenfoldPlant at Instrucables here.

Cuts of Human Meat Infographics

This macabre Cuts of Human Meat Infograpic is part of “Gallery of Horrors: Original Art Inspired by TEXAS CHAINSAW 3D”. 

You could print this out as a grainy black and white Engineers Print (super cheap and done in huge sizes at Staples, etc…) with bloody fingerprints around the edges for Halloween Decor or a Halloween Haunted House.

Find the Cuts of Human Meat Infographic Art by Jon Snider at VICE on the gallery page here.

I also posted Cannibalism: The Choicest Cuts of Meat from Awesometomb on Deviant Art here.

DIY  Neon Hello There/Hell Here  Sign 

Updated 2019

HELLO THERE/HELL HERE EL Wire Sign. There are both written and video tutorials for this DIY Batman Returns EL Wire sign. I’ve posted a lot of EL Wire DIYs on my other site here.

Find the DIY EL Wire Neon Sign Tutorial from Glitter Mint here.

DIY Plastic Bottle Bell Jar Cloche from Seeing Things  

Updated Link 2019 - this is a real link that takes you to the original tutorial on the WayBack Machine.

This is not my tutorial, but screenshots from the WayBack Machine. 

Remove Bottom of Bottle

Please use caution in the following steps to avoid personal injury! Using a craft knife cut the bottom section of the bottle off by following the raised line. Using scissors cut around the bottom edge evening it out. Place the bottle on the cut edge, trim any areas that cause the bottle to shift in a crooked fashion. Continue trimming until the bottle standscorrectly (as perfectly upright as possible). Clean and dry the inside of the bottle. 

Remove Top of Bottle Using a mini-hobby saw or another cutting instrument appropriate for the job, cut the threads at the top of the bottle off as shown in the photo.

Attach Bubble Ball Topper Squeeze a bead of Glossy Accents around the cut rim of the bottle.Gently attach a bubble ball by positioning it over the glue line and pressing down lightly. Leave to dry completely.

Apply Foam Core Base Measure the diameter of the cut edge of the bottle. Add 1/2” to this measurement. Using a compass draw two circles on the foam board matching the calculated measurement. Mine came in at 5” (12.8cm). Glue the two circles together. Cover the cut edges of the foam core with black ribbon, use white glue or tack in place with black wire bent in a “u” shape and pushed into the foam. 

Prepare Styrofoam Stand The following step will depend on what you plan to put inside the bell jar. If you require a stand cut a piece of Styrofoam that will fit inside the jar with enough room around it to add moss and still be able to comfortably replace the bell jar over it. Glue the stand in place then cover with moss. Keep moss in place by pushing small pieces of wire bent in “u” shapes into the Styrofoam. Creepy cloth may also be used to cover the base. 

Decorate Inside of Jar Fill your bell jar with your favorite things. Trek outside for a few “found” objects. How about a few creepy Halloween creatures or tell a story with purchased or created miniatures. Have fun!! Enjoy!

DIY Herb Garden with Basil and Rosemary from Dave Lowe Design

He used mannequin parts and gardening pots to make these. That also looks like Spanish moss in the pots.

DIY Harry Potter Hogwarts Herbology Bathroom

For your Herbology Bathroom:

For over 125 Harry Potter DIYs go here: truebluemeandyou.com/tagged/harry-potter

Find the DIY Harry Potter Herbology Bathroom, tutorial, and printables at In Literature here.