Via Nicole Weston at Baking Bites, a tutorial and recipe for these awesome vampire cupcakes!

Vampire Cupcakes!

Nicole’s got dozens of other tutorials for DIY halloween treats, including Vampire Cookies, Halloween Treat ideas, and these adorable gingerbread skeletons!

If you’re even remotely interested in baking I suggest you check out Nicole’s blog. She’s always posting unique and delicious recipes, as well as tips and news from the world of baking and recipe book reviews. Nicole is one smart cookie (sorry, couldn’t resist) who holds a BA in Linguistics from UC Berkeley as well as a professional pastry certificate from the LA New School of Cooking.

She does all the cooking, baking, writing and photography on the blog herself, although if she did ALL the tasting, she wouldn’t be able to keep her figure

Seeing all the vampire stuff around these days makes me wonder how long until I have some Twilight weddings up on the blog.

DIY Weddings is hosting a craft tutorial contest. Are you (or did you) make something yourself for your wedding? Tell them about it, show them how you did it, and you could win much kudos and a $100, $75, $50 or $25 Amazon gift certificate, a bridesmaid cosmetic bag and a ‘What’s a Dame to Do’ board game.

Rules say you have to reside in the US to enter (I assume because of shipping), so you won’t be competing against this New Zealand resident. Entries must include both instructions and photographs, and must reach the DIY weddings inbox by midnight, EST, March 31st. You’ve got a little under a month left.

Sounds like fun. What are you waiting for? Hop to it!

Via the wonderful folks at Halloween Forum (a source of excellent advice for Halloween goodies) I present you with scans of antique victorian poison bottle labels.

What can you do with these, I hear you ask? Lots of things! Why not adapt one of these scans as your wedding invitation/STD cards or reply cards?

(If you wanted some wonderful victorian words to use, look through this Victorian slang dictionary)

Or these would make macabre labels for wine bottles at the reception. I’d imagine the conversation going a little like this.

Guest 1: ‘Is that red any good?’

Guest 2: taking another swig ‘it’s a fruity palette with dark oat flavours…

Guest 1: ‘Yeah, yeah, but it’s alcoholic right? Give it here!’ Pours himself glass. ‘You know, that really is good. What kind of wine is it? I might buy some for my piss-up next week.’

Guest 2: ‘the label says ‘tinct: fishberries. POISON.’ And there’s a picture of a skull. Oh dear…’

Guest 2 looks at his drink, then discretly spits mouthful back into glass.

Guest 1: ‘Fishberry, eh? I guess that explains the fruity palette…’

Guest 2: ‘I don’t feel so good…’

Or – if you can source a large amount of tiny bottles or jars – make poison favors. Pack them instead with liqueurs, jams, candies or soft drinks. You could personalise the labels with your names and wedding date.

I am totally using these labels in an upcoming project. I just love them

One of the recent offbeat trends is to donate the money you would use for wedding favors to a charity. I love this idea – weddings are very consumer-driven events – why not give a little back to the universe that has given you your partner? What a great way to begin your marriage.

You could place a small, handwritten card at each guest’s place explaining the donation and the work of the charity you’ve donated too. Provide a website if guests want to contact the charity after the wedding.

When choosing a charity, try to choose something everyone can relate to. Remember, not everyone attending your wedding will have the same religious, political or cultural views. Avoid donating to staunch political or religious charities or those doing ‘controversial’ work, such as the charity trying to educate people that AIDs doesn’t exist.

Go local – enviroment organisations, historical societies, save the main street. Get people excited about the charitable work in your area.

I’d love to hear from couples who’ve donated to charity in lieu of favors. How did it go? What did you write on your card? Did you experience any problems?

For years I’ve been making matchbox artworks. I’ve been a dollhouse fanatic since I could walk and I love any art project that comes in miniature. So I thought I’d share with you lovely Skullys a DIY favor idea that’s a little bit out there, a little bit zany. Because I know you love ‘em.

Via the lovely ladies at Midnight Garden forums, Love Potion favors!