Halloween Ghosties

Halloween ghosties make for great craft project because they’re easy to make, the supplies are inexpensive, and they’re cute as can be!

My family and I enjoy making these and finding interesting places to put them every year!  Sometimes we place the on the mantle and sometimes we tie a string around them and hang them from various places, including our outdoor tree!  These white ghosties hanging from autumn trees makes a really cute effect, you just have to make sure to bring them in before it rains!

Here’s what you need to get started for making your own Halloween ghosts:

• Tissues, tissue paper, or cloth handkerchiefs
• Black and orange ribbon
• Black magic marker
• String (optional)

To make Halloween ghosties:

1. Wad up a tissue ball and place in the center of another tissue or handkerchief (to fill the head of the ghost).
2. Tie a black or orange ribbon under the head of the ghost, around the neck.
3. Draw eyes and a mouth on your ghost with the magic marker.
4. Tie a string around the neck or onto the back of the ribbon if you’d like to hang up your ghost.

And it’s as easy as that!  Feel free to let the kids get creative with the ghosts if you like, too.  My daughter likes to decorate hers with different colors and sometimes uses stick-on googly eyes for effect.

My family usually uses Kleenex tissues to make these, but if you want something more durable, cloth handkerchiefs work really well.

The beauty of this craft is that it’s fun for all ages – from preschoolers to older kids to adults like me!

Halloween Gourd Friend

By Sirena Van Schaik

Fall has arrived and pumpkins have arrived with it but today, I’m not really looking at the pumpkins. Instead, I am looking at the cute little bags of gourds that are lining the produce section of your local grocery store.

Usually, these little treats are found in a bag of about 12 gourds. They are fairly inexpensive and most people pull them out to decorate tables and rooms for the Thanksgiving holiday but there are many other uses for gourds.

The craft that we will be looking at today is one of those other uses. This is an excellent craft for children of all ages. There is no cutting and all you really need are markers. It is fast, not too messy and a lot of fun. The only thing that you really need to worry about is having enough gourds since most kids want to make more than one Gourd Friend.

What you need:

• Gourds (the ones that look like mini pumpkins)
• Markers

Optional

• Feather Boas
• Feathers
• Stickers (face stickers work great)
• Glitter
• Felt
• Odds and ends (buttons, seeds, confetti)
• White Glue

Directions:

1. Wash your gourds before you start this craft. Make sure they are completely dry, usually leaving them overnight works best.

2. Put out some markers for the children to use.

3. Give each child a gourd after you explain what you will be making with them.

4. Allow them to draw a face on the gourd. For younger children, they will probably just produce a gourd full of scribbles but that is okay. Drawing on a 3 dimensional object provides them with a different type of stimuli and art concept, which will help develop their artistic interests.

5. And that is all you need to do. Set them up as decorations for Halloween or for Thanksgiving.

See, simple, but if you want to add a few more minutes of craft time to this project, there are many different things you can do. For older children, you can have them create monsters with the gourds and provide them with buttons, paint, and other materials to create even more intricate Halloween Gourd Friends.

For all the children, you could also pull out feathers, feather boas and other supplies that could be used for hair for your gourd. White glue will hold everything down and you will have an even more extravagant Gourd Friend.

Lastly, if you want to mix it up, use different types of gourds to create different things. You could make animals with the gourds or you could make aliens with horribly bumpy skin. Cut out pieces of felt to make ears or use shaped pasta to create arms or even jewellery.

If you want to go bigger, use pie pumpkins for the craft. There really is no wrong way to do these and they are an appropriate decoration throughout the falls.

This craft is always a big success with both my children and my class and I usually have to triple up the number of gourds I purchase since most children want to have a whole family of Gourd Friends.