How to Make a Ghost.

I love Halloween.

And not the cute kind.

Not this kind of Halloween:


Oh, no. That ghost up there is for sissy's.

Here is how to make a REAL ghost to scare all your neighbors.

What you will need:


-fishing wire $2.50/big fat roll at Wal-Mart
-a bunch of plastic bags Wal-Mart or Target style FREE
-white spray paint $0.99
-3 yrds of cheese cloth $3.50 from Joanne's
-*black sharpie FREE (look in your junk drawer) or black craft paint*
-might need some tape or glue

Basically, your first ghost will cost about $7.00. If you'd like to make more the only thing you would have to purchase again is the cheese cloth and you can certainly make different sizes too. So, about $1.30ish per yard of cheese cloth. You can buy it in the package like I did or by the yard. Just ask your friendly Joanne's fabric lady where it is :)

First, stuff about 3-4 waded up plastic bags into another plastic bag and tie it off. You should end up with something like this:


Then go outside and spray paint the bags white. In the picture you will see a box. Spray painting into a box is the dumbest, I repeat, the dumbest suggestion EVER. Sorry Martha, but it's dumb. All the fumes bounce off the back of the box and into your face. That's dumb. So, I ended up just holding the bag up with my left hand and and spraying with my right hand and miraculously the fumes went into the air and not in my face. Sorry ozone. But I did re-use the bags.


Let the bags dry for a few minutes while you spread out and trim the cheese cloth. You will need a 2yrd piece and 1yrd piece. I just estimated b/c I'm lazy. You can make it whatever size, just make the inner layer shorter to give it that spooky dimension. Don't be fooled! It is probably folded one more time than you think...it's very very thin. So make sure it is completely unfolded.

Now the bags are dry and your ready to assemble the ghost.


Cut a length of fishing line and tie it around the target bag (up and down) so that the top knot is on the top of the bags, as in the top of the ghost's head....tie it off. The ends of this string will be threaded through the cheese cloth and allow your ghost to hang from the top of his or her head.

Next, color in they eyes and mouth with a Sharpie directly onto the bag. O.k., I drew these in on the cheese cloth and it was not easy. The Sharpie might not work well on to the spray painted surface....not sure...you will have to experiment, I haven't made my second one yet. So, if you have a bottle of black craft paint, just paint them on if need be.

Lay the shortest length (1yrd) in half over the plastic bags threading the string through the top. Now, lay the longer length (2 yrds) in half over that and thread the string through that layer.

The string should now be coming directly out of the top of the ghosts head out of the cheese cloth making your ghost ready to hang.

You might or might not want to trace over the eyes and mouth directly on the cheese cloth but if you don't dab some glue on it, it will move around and give your ghost 4 eyes.

The result is quite shockingly realistic, you know, because I've seen a ghost and all:

Do you think the passers-by at night will take a second look? Here is what it looks like with no flash at night:




Here is the Target version for $13.00 plus tax. I know some of you would not think this was worth the effort but it was easy and I love hand made things so for me, this was a winner. But for you lazy's...go buy yourself the ready made one if you want.

Next up: How to Make a BIG spider Web with Spiders and all!