How To Make Ghosts For Halloween

It's that time of year again when you start thinking of the spooky season. My birthday is in mid September and my gift to myself is to decorate for Halloween. There is plenty of time for planning and for crafts, construction, and plotting out your designs.

Chicken Wire Ghosts

Chicken wire ghosts are a fantastic and newer decoration that is becoming more and more popular. It has an amazing look and can be kept up all year if one wanted to keep a few ghosts in the garden.

It's not easy to make a chicken wire ghost, but the effect is so worth it. You will need gloves and wire cutters. Use a 1-inch cell chicken wire (buy a roll) and cut 24" of length from it. You want to use a mannequin head (you can get cheap stryofoam heads on places like Amazon). Form it around the head (below). Set the head aside while you make the body.

Instructions for body are here.

Pepper's Ghost

A Pepper's ghost is an optical illusion used in magic tricks and haunted house attractions that is pretty wicked awesome, but it takes some knowledge and practice to get it just right. It would make a wonderful front window display for Trick-or-Treaters to see unfolding.

Projected Ghosts

Cheesecloth Ghost

HGTV gave some good instructions.

Using a paint roller extension pole and two yardsticks, you make the frame for its body. Nail them together. Stick the pole into the ground, pointed end up. Use a 6-inch styrofoam ball (craft store) for the head, placing it on the post. Attach styrofoam balls to the ends of the arms for hands, drive the yardstick into the ball. Start draping sheets of cheesecloth over the head and arms until you have it the way you want it. Now, take fabric stiffener and put in a spray bottle and begin to spray and soak the ghost. Cut a wide open mouth and two large eyes from black felt and attach once the cheesecloth is dry. Remove the hand balls from the yardsticks and take a needle and clear fishing wire and run it through the part of the fabric where the hand is to run the string up to be tied to the tree to keep it floating. Do the same for the top of the head to secure it by string to the tree. Now, you may remove the sticks underneath and ball, so that the spirit floats and glides with its new shape.

Ghost Foods