Kitchen Labels

I decided to add a little gothic touch to our kitchen by designing some halloween inspired labels for jars. Since it was just a personal project, I didn't bother drawing anything; I just downloaded some fonts for the lettering. The frames and the pictures are fonts too.

I printed the labels onto sticker paper, which I realised was totally unnecessary when I had to tape them on with sellotape anyway, but that's how ya learn. I also kind of like the aged, crackled look the sellotape gives actually...

Deadly Decaf and Spiders' Webs (chai teabags). In hindsight, the chai tea should have been "Graveyard Dust" or something like that, but then again, maybe coffee granules seem more like graveyard dust than teabags...

Liquorice Tea is one of my favourites. It's also a strange greeny-yellow liquid with an extremely sweet aftertaste. Definitely sounds fitting as some kind of poisonous concoction or magical potion to me.

Full strength, regular coffee is, of course, just "Poison". I adore coffee, even instant coffee like this, but I couldn't resist the dramatic title.

Making An Eyeball Flower Brooch

I picked up some very cheap flower brooches from h&m the other day and decided to give them a bit of the old diy treatment. This is by no means a tutorial, since the method is incredibly self-explanatory, but I think it's nice to document these things anyway to show that you can make things like this instead of paying lots of money for them.

I cut some of the stamens out of the flower first for room, then glued around the edge of the eyeball (which was bought as a set of 12 from ebay) before positioning it onto the flower and holding it while the glue dried.

Not the trickiest thing in the world I've ever made although I might add some red diamontes around the edge to fancy it up a bit. I know it makes me look a bit like a clown, but I love it anyway! And, besides, what's more gothic than a clown? Clown's are terrifying!

Making a Spiked Black Metal Lamp

For a long time now, I've been very inspired by the idea of a black lamp with metal spikes. 

My 'home decor' board on pinterest has, for a while, been home to both this image of a piece by artist Rebecca Johnson from Bughouse and this piece by Andrea Maestri. Unfortunately though, lamps like this are pieces of art rather than house products so, as a result, are either not for sale or waaaay out of my price range. 

For that reason, I had a go at making a spiky lamp myself, diy-style. Hopefully it's different enough from any existing pieces so as not to be copying them (I've not seen any others with a plain black shade and spikes on a matte black base yet. Besides, I'm not selling it - it's just for me!).

The finished lamp

I used an old yellow second-hand lamp. First I scrubbed it to death with some sandpaper (very important), wrapped masking tape over the bulb and cord and then painted it outside with a matte black spray-paint. I ordered the spikes online from a shop on ebay. I think they're meant for decorating mobile phones, haha.

Then I set up a ridiculous contraption to keep the lamp horizontal while I glues the spikes on, abandoned that when it didn't work and drove myself half mad trying to hold it like a club and stick them on without the glue slipping off before it dried. Yay.

I guess it worked though: here's the finished cactusy looking lamp. There are a few faults and you can see some of the scuff marks where I sanded it, but I think it came out ok.

And here it is with the light plugged in and switched. The shade's a bit thin and cheap so I'll probably get a better one to replace it, but it'll do for now.