The plants produced about 15 impressive roses during their first bloom of the season – one in particular of which stood out from the moment it appeared to unfold countless blood red droplets while awakening as a bud, only to boast 23 rich velvet-textured ink stained, delicately folded petals as a full mature blossom. It’s image has been preserved within a vintage-style greeting card and stationary set surrounded with a tea and ink blot background texture to create a romantic love note, elegant wedding or masquerade invitation, Halloween party invite, or a special letter where everyone will know it’s sent straight from your desk without having to glance at a signature: Vintage Gothic Rose Card.

Although my roses suffer quick death once snipped, I managed to keep a few alive in the refrigerator for over 3 weeks while ignoring my husband at FriedMush when he complained for being too bothered to rearrange their placement in order to reach the water container. Guess what, honey? Here comes second bloom…and they’re back – bigger, more plentiful than ever, and fully willing to take over even the milk gallon’s rightful spot this time around.

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

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:

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

My piratey renaissance neighbor and friend, Faustus, from FriedMush received his skull pumpkin version today and loved it. You can order them directly on my website here: Gothic Masquerade Pumpkins or on my WebSpinstress Etsy Store. I decided to give Etsy a try for quick listings for my blog – 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 and you won’t be disappointed!

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…

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!

This entire collection of printable games can easily be crafted yourself such as Phantom’s Vortex, The Vault of Mystery, or Undead Checkers, and could easily be the life or the death of your Halloween party. Projects such as the coffin boxes and CD cases would make excellent party favors, and toys such as various masks or creatures such as “The Splatterbot” would make fun projects to print out in multiples for your guests to enjoy. Goodbye toilet paper roll mummy-wrapping games…

Some of these would also make great centerpieces and table decorations when arranged with other props, such as skeletons and spiders.

Oh, you want the link?
RavensBlight Printable Toys

Wilton makes a Halloween drink-coloring dye set with green, orange, red, and black already mixed for you, available at your local craft store. Hard-boiled eggs, cauliflower chunks, mini skeletons, and light-colored creatures work well in dark colored dyes for the added appeal of not being able to distinguish clear details apart from each specimen.

I found a very inspiring display of potion bottle specimen jars arranged on an antiquated bookshelf with a full tutorial included. Create your own Witches’ Kitchen this Halloween for a unique party theme that will have your guests brewing and bubbling over (with anticipation, I mean. I certainly hope you don’t plan to stuff them into the cauldron…).

Use vintage-style potion bottle labels for added authenticity, such as this beautiful set from the talent behind Love Manor: Bottle Labels.

For more apothecary jars, potion bottles, and specimen jars ideas, visit my complete list here: Halloween Apothecary and Specimen Jars