Kids Halloween Craft: Cheesecloth ghosts

Materials needed: paper towel tube, foil, pencils, masking tape, cheese cloth, liquid starch. Directions: Build a base for your ghost as seen in the pic. The paper towel tube will add height, the foil is to shape the ghost's head, and the pencils can be shoved into the paper towel tube to make arm shapes. The masking tape can be used to hold the ghost structure to your work surface. I think its best to use a baking sheet that has a lip on it as your working surface... much easier clean up. When your ghost structure is ready, dip strips of cheese cloth in the liquid starch, wring it out a bit, and drape it over your ghost structure. Repeat the dipping and draping process until you like your ghost form. The less layers of cheese cloth, the more transparent the ghost, but also more fragile. Let your ghost fully dry, then remove your structure.

These ghosts were made by my nanny kids Pinky and Jimmy last year. This is what they look like after a year of storage. We lost an eye, but when I offered to re-attach it Pinky declared that she would rather-have-a-spooky-one-eyed-ghost-thank-you-very-much. Fun craft to do with the kids because their hands get super gooey in the liquid starch. A less messy way to do this project is to place all of the cheese cloth on your structure dry, and when you're finished use a spray-on fabric stiffener. Also fun to place an electronic tealight inside the ghost. A real tealight would be a crazy fire hazard so please don't do that :)

Halloween Paper Lanterns

Halloween Decorations! I have to confess, this year I started putting up Halloween decorations on Sept 21. My poor hubby was not very happy. Apparently I should wait for October before cracking open the Halloween box. About 2-4 weeks after every holiday, I pick up holiday supplies/ decorations at 90% off from Hobby Lobby, Michael's, Target, Walmart, or Hallmark. We all re-use holiday decorations anyway, and you can get a ton more for your money if you shop post-holiday and save the decorations for next year. This results in a very excited crafter when a year has gone by and you open a box to a bunch of already paid for new toys!

These paper lanterns can be purchased at Michael's. I used black and silver glitter glue to make jack-o-lantern, ghost, and bat designs. I use Command Damage Free Hanging Mini Clips to safely attach the lanterns to the ceiling. Comes in a pack of 40, so I will keep them packed away with the Halloween stuff to be used for quite a few years.

I also did this craft last year with my afternoon nanny family. Jimmy and Pinky each decorated their own monster lanterns. Messy and fun. We used a Halloween glitter glue set which included green, purple, black, and orange.