Holidays: Ghostly Goodness

Like many others my mind is in full orange & black mode this month – I can’t stop thinking about Halloween! More specifically I am thinking about how I can decorate our house for those little ghosts & goblins that will be visiting at the end of the month. When I stumbled upon this ghostly project I knew that it would be perfect for our house adding a little touch of the holiday here and there.

Supplies:

  • Cheese cloth
  • Liquid starch (found in the detergent aisle) or starch paste (corn starch + water)
  • Styrofoam balls or balloons
  • Something to balance the balls on – I used glasses of various sizes
  • Plastic sheeting (to protect your work surface)

    supplies – corn starch paste vs. liquid starch

I tried 2 different methods* of this project – one using liquid starch and one using a paste I made. If you choose to make your own paste you will need to mix approximately 2 ¼ cups (give or take) of water with 1 cup of corn starch, mix, & microwave for about 2 minutes stirring frequently until it is like a thick pudding. If using liquid starch just pour it into a bowl.

Plan out the height of your ghosts by placing your Styrofoam balls on tops of glasses – I found it helpful to stack some glasses for my larger ghosts. Cut the cheese cloth to the desired length – drape over the forms to find out house much to use.

my ghost forms (go Twins!)

Submerge the cheese cloth into the starch working the starch into the cloth. Take out of the starch and open the cheese cloth (the cloth is delicate at this point and may tear – be gentle). Drape over your forms and adjust the cloth to your liking. I did 2 layers of cloth per ghost for a little more dimension. Let sit over night or until firm (if you made your own starch this may take closer to 24 hours for everything the dry).

Take off your form and you are done! Yay!

ghost family

You can feel free to add eyes made out of felt or construction paper if you wish. These are so fun to place around the house. I will be putting my 2 large ones outside on Halloween but right now we are enjoying them indoors. You may even consider making some mini ones and stringing them into a garland or how about hanging them from the ceiling with fishing line to give the impression that they are floating in the air?! Or how about putting a glow stick or little flameless candle under them?! These would be a great addition to any Halloween party as decorations or as a party favor. Let me know if you try these out – I would love to see how you spook up your party!

 

*I found the liquid starch to be much easier to work with! Though the homemade starch seemed to set a lot firmer than the liquid.