Bleeding heart dessert

I just made this dessert the other night. Not only was it delicious, but it got a great reaction from all of our guests! (I recommend using an anatomical heart mold rather than the type shown here though.)

The recipe can be found here. (It originally appeared in Penn & Teller's 1992 book "How To Play With Your Food".)

Thunder and lightning machine comparison

For anyone who is thinking of buying a thunder and lightning simulator this website will be an invaluable resource. Their comparisons and reviews of machines by more than a dozen companies will help you choose the right one.

Monster Alphabet

After I posted a link to some Halloween fonts on Friday, one of my readers brought The Alphabet Of Monsters to my attention. Don't bother teaching your kids that "A is for Apple" and "B is for Ball". Print out these graphics and teach them that "A is for Alien," "B is for Blob," "C is for Chupacabra," "D is for...", well, you get the idea.

UPDATE:
It seems as though this alphabet is also available on t-shirts and in a book.

Haunted Pop-Up

From the mind of Maurice Sendak, the man who created
"Where The Wild Things Are", comes an amazing pop-up book entitled
"Mommy?". The story follows a baby, who is lost in a mad scientists lab, as it searches for its mommy.

I had an opportunity to flip through this at the bookstore today, and the quality is amazing. It's definitely one of the best pop-up books I've ever seen.

Click here for a behind the scenes look at the making of this book.

Crystal Lake Memories

Jason Voorhees fans can rejoice. Your favorite machete wielding killer is now the subject of his own coffee table book. "Crystal Lake Memories"is the definitive history of the Friday the 13th franchise. 320 pages, over 600 photos and 200 interviews with cast and crew from all eleven films.

Bleeding tombstone

What a great idea! I've never seen a bleeding tombstone before. The folks at Mourning Cemetery did a wonderful job building this.

Halloween fonts

Click here for a wide variety of Halloween fonts.

FCG gallery

I've never seen such a wide variety of flying crank ghosts. This gallery shows examples of flying crank ghosts, spiders, grim reapers, skeletons, and even Mickey Mouses.

Cheap coffin plans

Here are plans for building a super inexpensive coffin using just one sheet of plywood. It's guaranteed to look better, last longer, and cost less than half as much as many commercially available coffins.

Scary Clowns

I was already familiar with Krypt Kiddies - a line of collectible horror baby dolls. Now I find out that this same company produces a line of Krypt Kiddies clowns. (Or maybe it's "klowns"?) Now I'm not usually afraid of clowns, but these things give me the willies. If I woke up in the middle of the night and saw this demonic fella staring at me, I'd have a heartattack.

Photoshop a haunted house

Here is a wonderful tutorial that give you step-by-step instructions on how to create a haunted house using Photoshop.

Halloween items from the 70s

Check out this great gallery of Halloween make-up and accessories from the 70s.

Costume idea

I love this style of costume! Creating the illusion of being carried around by a monster or giant animal is always very strong. Almost every year, without fail, one of the winners of our local Halloween costume contest is wearing this type of getup.

When you check out the "Trading Places" site, be sure to click on the movies of these costumes in action. Hilarious!

The Monster Engine

When he's not creating artwork for comic book covers and trading cards, Dave Devrie works on an unusual side project - converting children's primitive crayon doodles into lifelike oil paintings.

Check out "The Monster Engine" for more information.

Delicious?

Here are instructions for creating an edible "meat head" to serve on Halloween.

Pros: It's easy to make and looks great.

Cons: Jell-O and cold cuts? That doesn't seem like a very appetizing combination.

Haunted Headstones

Haunted Headstones creates professional quality, highly-detailed tombstones for the haunted attraction industry. Each gravestone is made from solid pine, weighs approximately twenty pounds and is free-standing. Unfortunately for the home haunter, these tombstones are fairly expensive. They range in price from $109 - $307. (They also have a line of economy stones for $20 - $70, but they don't look nearly as good.)

Even if you don't have any intention of making a purchase, you should definitely check out their designs. One of their props might inspire your next homemade stone.

Wedding rings made of bone

If gold seems too hackneyed, and platinum to humdrum, perhaps a band of bone will suit your fancy. Thanks to a UK-based company, couples are being given the opportunity to grow wedding rings out their own bone cells.

Click here to read an article on the procedure, and here to visit the company's website.

Balloon Manor

This ten-room, 10,000-square-foot walk-through haunted house was created entirely out of balloons. It took fifty balloon artists from around the world five days and 130,000 balloons to create every wall, monster and object. Proceeds from the event went to a local cancer center.

Click here to learn more about this scairy display.

Offensive display of the week

This aircraft mechanic created a fake plane crash for his Halloween display. It was so realistic that even the police were fooled.

Halloween records

This site is devoted to haunted albums of yesteryear. Click here to enjoy the vintage cover art and listen to tracks from each album.

Sleep in a coffin

Next time you're visiting Berlin, consider staying at the Propeller Island City Lodge. This theme hotel offers a wide variety of unusual rooms, including The Mirror Room (covered floor to ceiling in mirrors it "gives you the impression of living in a kaleidoscope"), The Upside-Down Room (where all of the furniture is glued to the ceiling), and for the haunt enthusiast, The Coffin Room (where $150 gets you a pair of coffins for the night). Why should the dead have all the fun? Try sleeping in a coffin today.

Disney's "Skeleton Dance" cartoon

Produced and directed by Walt Disney in 1929, "The Skeleton Dance" has certainly held up well through the ages. In 1994, it was named one of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time. Click here to watch these skeletons swing. And here for more information on the cartoon from Wikipedia. (via Boing Boing.)

Disappearing tattoo

What a great idea! Tattoos that only appear under ultra-violet light. I could get my entire body done up like a skeleton and not have to worry about looking like this guy. I may wait a little while though. It looks like the UV inks they're currently using may be causing some health problems.

Click here for more shots of this skeleton arm tattoo and other UV tattoos.

Skeleton Cycle

After I wrote about the Munster's cars yesterday, numerous people e-mailed me links to this amazing motorcycle. The bike features an anatomically-correct, solid titanium skeleton that is a structural component of the frame. John Farr, the bike's creator says, “The skeleton is the top half of the frame. It isn’t bolted on or there for decoration. Its backbone is the frame’s backbone. The leg bones are the frame’s legs.”

Click here for more shots of this terrific motorcycle.

How to make fake eyes

Here is a fast and easy (and cheap!) way to make realistic looking fake eyes.