Halloween Kids Craft: Hanging Ghosts

Over the past couple of weeks, I have purchased and read several Halloween Magazines.  After reading almost every magazine on the shelf, I can tell you there are several popular “Halloween themes” this year (i.e. Graveyards, Toxic Lotions and Potions, Spiders, Skeletons, Halloween Trees, Gothic….) .  One of these themes more popular themes is ghosts. 

SIDENOTE: Unfortunately, the “theme” at my house is – Everyone is invited to this party.  I have Skeletons, Graveyards, Black Crows, Mice.  It’s rather overwhelming.  Oh, why couldn’t I stick with one theme?

Enough about my woes.  Let’s continue.  Where was I?  Oh yeah, ghosts.

I’ve particularly noticed a trend when it comes to ghost crafts.  Such as the below “Host of Friendly Ghosts” by Country Living.

After seeing a host of easy ghost crafts, I decided.  “Hey, why not give these little Casper’s a try?”.  To make things even more interesting, I decided to attempt this craft with Trey and Grady. (Jamie asked me to babysit while she ran to a doctor’s appointment, so it worked out great.)

The result?  It was a great kids craft.  Super easy and the kids loved it.

MATERIALS

• Cheesecloth (or mummy wrap) cut in to 8in x 8in squares (You can buy 6 yards of cheesecloth for $4-$5 at Walmart. It’s next to the sewing machines and thread.)
• Elmer’s Glue (1/4 – 1/2 cup)
• Water (1/4 – 1/2 cup)
• Black Felt
• Scissors
• Fishing Line (Or Clear Elastic String)
• Glitter Spray (Optional)
• Tacky Glue
• Fabric Stiffener (Optional)
• Plastic Tablecloth (Optional)

NOTE: Country Living soaked their fabric in fabric stiffener.  Since I didn’t have fabric stiffener, I made my own with glue and water.

DIRECTIONS: 

1. Prep your cheesecloth (or mummy cloth, that’s all I had lying around) by cutting in to 8in x 8in squares.  My cloth wasn’t a perfect 8in x 8in square so don’t worry if yours is a little too large or too small. 
2. Prep your fabric stiffener mixture.  If you’re using glue, mix 1 part glue with 1 part water (i.e. 1/2 cup glue and 1/2 cup water)
3. Blow up small balloons and place them in cups (If you have small cups, you may have to stack a few on top of each other.  I even taped my cups together)
4. Dip 2 pieces of cheesecloth into the fabric stiffener.  Lightly wring out and drap over 1 balloon. 
5. If you want to spray your ghosts with glitter spray paint, spray now.
6. Set ghosts aside, and let them dry for a couple of hours.
7. Once ghosts are dry (and stiff), pop the balloon and gently pry it out of the ghost.
8. Cut out two tiny circles with black felt and glue them to the ghost with tacky glue.
9. Thread fishing line through top of each ghost.  Secure with a knot.  Then, hang to your hearts desire.

On my first round of ghosts, I made the balloons too big.  Make sure your balloons are smaller than a baseball.

Note: you can’t see my ghost’s eyes because they are facing the other way.  I had to take a picture from the back side because the lighting was better. Oops!

~~Camberley~~

Related posts:

1. Nutter Butter Ghosts
2. Kids Craft: Patty and Patrick Shamrock
3. On the Ninth Day of Halloween…
4. Kids’ Craft: Bat Pumpkins
5. Spring Kids’ Craft and a St. Patty’s Treat!