It’s safe to say that I’m not exactly the world’s foremost expert on the Victorian. Or Gothic. I don’t really even know how those two things are different. Or not. I just had this vision in my head of a Halloween full of crows and Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion. Miss Havisham and Edgar Allen Poe. But for all I know I’ve been committing all kinds of historical and design atrocities as I’ve followed this vague notion of an idea.
Despite my lack of concrete knowledge, I knew that Poe’s creepy writings had to end up on here somewhere. I searched around the internet to find a few excerpts that were sufficiently spooky, and then set about making an ornament to display them.
I found these signs at Michael’s in the aisle with all the naked wood. It came with a thick rope hanger like something you’d see hanging on a pirate ship. I pulled off the rope and painted it a creamy ivory color, and then rubbed a black ink pad around the edges.
I formatted the quotes on my computer, and then searched around online to find out how to make my own rubons. It was really easy. I took a transparency meant for a laser printer, and then ran it through my inkjet printer. The ink from my printer beads up on the transparency, so you can transfer it without it drying. The most important thing is to make sure that you set your printer to print in mirror image, so that the text won’t be backwards when you transfer it. You can also spray your transparency with a spray hair gel to make it even easier to transfer. I had mixed results with this, so I’m not certain it’s necessary, but it sure didn’t hurt anything.
Then I just stapled a new ribbon on the top to use as a hanger.
Doing a whole bunch of these took me about a day, but they completely set the whole tone for this tree I’ve been trying to get out of my head and into reality.
Stumbling in late from Vanessa's Halloween party – what a lot of fantastic and, perhaps most delightful, doable crafts. I'll definitely be back to poke around more.
your house must look "killer" no pun intended. Are you going to throw a party? If so, make sure I get an invite!
Those are super cute. Unfortunately, reading The Raven gave me terrible nightmares for weeks. It was the weirdest thing.
During the process of learning you make your life easier, comfortable in the community. You always learn in every turn with your advanced and skillful knowledge. Education is your true well wisher and never leaves yourself in any worse situation in the community while others will leave you.