WebSpinstress Gothic Halloween Blog

Creepy Treats: Romantic Sweets

These dark chocolate treat finds are the most visually-appealing displays of dark and romantic treats to make your sweetheart this Valentine’s Day. Hopefully they include a great recipe to accompany the pictures to make, as I didn’t get much farther than wiping the drool off the keyboard in time to read through ingredient lists…

Truffle Tarts with Raspberries
Black Chocolate Bites
Red Velvet Sandwich Cookies

If you are are melting chocolate and dipping into it yourself this year, instead of just strawberries you can include random surprises such as banana slices, cherries, nuts, and even gummy bears.

While the chocolate is still dripping down the sides, you can also roll the fruit in chopped nuts or fine chocolate slivers to appear somewhat gourmet.

If you’d need a few last-minute gift ideas for Valentine’s Day (or any day that you’d like to show your love for someone special), visit my romantic gifts ideas here: Romantic Gifts and Ideas

Happy Halloween

I hope everyone had a very Happy Halloween and a night full of spookable frights with plenty of tricks and treats for all. We went trick-or-treating with our little puppy dog and Black Symbiont Spiderman, and also celebrated our anniversary today. Tomorrow we’ll be heading out to scavenge the Halloween clearance sales for next year’s stockpile and continue to add to our usual household decor. Since Halloween in our home never ends, I’ll be continuing this blog year-round. I will most likely be exploring the darker & elegant sides of Christmas and other holidays in-between, and including unusual Gothic home decorating ideas. I’ve had a great time compiling my Creepy Treats and Arrangements sections of my Halloween blog and am now accustomed to posting in whatever spare time I can finagle out of life. Only 364 days to prepare for the next Halloween – don’t leave yet!

Elegant Halloween Displays

Only 2 more days until Halloween!

Create easy last-minute elegant Halloween decorations by using simple spooky supplies that are available everywhere such as flowers, leaves, pumpkins, ravens, and plastic skeletons. Here’s two examples of quick dark arrangements that I have completed within the last few weeks:

Scary Candied Apples

This hauntingly delicious candied apple recipe deserves its own post. I won’t even dare to mix and match these with traditional candied apples because there has never been a more dark & elegant Halloween treat dropped out of the orchard before…in Snow White fashion – these apples are simply to die for.

These candied apples are dripping with blood red and black glass-like candy with natural twig branches that serve as the sticks. They are perfect for Gothic and Vampire themed Halloween parties. Kudos to the talented apple dipper and the stunning visuals from the photographer. I can foresee these forever charming my macabre dinner parties for many years…

Scary Candied Apples

Gothic Masquerade Pumpkins

My masquerade pumpkin invitation cards have been popular on Zazzle for a little while, most appropriately used for Gothic weddings and Halloween parties. This year, I decided to make the real-life versions by hand-stitching them in Venetian style with elegant black cording and beautiful fabrics. I’m holding one in my avatar…after almost 15 hours of hand-stitching and yelling obscenities at these things in standard New England tradition. lol

My piratey renaissance neighbor and friend, Faustus, from FriedMush received his skull pumpkin version today…there’s 2 more available RIGHT HERE on Etsy. I decided to give Etsy a try for quick listings for my blog and we’ll see how it goes. Grab them quick if you’re interested – I only have a few days to ship them in time for Halloween. I’ll have them listed all year round though for Gothic and masquerade themed wedding decorations. These are the darkest, most elegant pumpkins available!

Spider Web Pumpkin Template

With an entire weekend of mixed freezing rain and huge fluffy white snowflakes falling to the ground, and now killer ladybugs and zombie bees attacking my screens today in 60 degree weather is trying to kill my Halloween inspiration. So, I turned to visions of smiling lit Jack-O-Lanterns and ripped apart pumpkin chunks to search for the perfect carving template this year.

I didn’t end up finding the perfect spider web pumpkin template, so I created my own instead. Hopefully it will keep it’s intricate slivers intact as I attempt to carve out my new masterpiece. If you’d like to print a free pumpkin template, click HERE for the full-size image…

Pumpkin Topiary Displays

If you’re looking to add some extra height to your Fall and Halloween arrangements, a pumpkin topiary is fun to create and makes a memorable display for your guests.

Simply drill and shove a dowel through the middle of their innards and then embellish your stacked pumpkin collection.

BHG has a unique Halloween display of pumpkin topiaries using orange pumpkins, large spiders with painted diamonds and stripes. I love how a portion of the dowels are exposed and painted to continue along with the topiary design. It radiates with masquerade appeal…and I can think of a few special ideas to spooky up the design a little more.

I found this display from Imperfectly Beautiful, who created a tall and whimsical pumpkin topiary. It includes hand-painted black and white polka-dots, ravens, and an elegant birdcage design stacked on top of a planter with Spanish moss placed carefully around the edges.

Black and White Pumpkins are elegant and fun. These pumpkin arrangements are made with just stickers, but you can duplicate the same look by using swirly vintage rubber stamp designs or by painting them yourself. Beautiful collection of centerpieces, by the way…don’t forget to check out the complete blog post!