Friday, October 24, 2008

Cheesecloth Ghosts

My mom made these with us when I was a child. We used to get them out each Halloween and they were a family favorite. I decided to make them with my kids this year and they loved it! Here are the directions:
Collect desired bottles or containers for the body forms. You are going to make the shape of a ghost, and then drape cheesecloth over it to make the ghost.

Scrunch up newspaper for the heads. Cover the newspaper with plastic wrap, so the newspaper print doesn't rub off onto your white ghosts. Or, you could try using foil instead.

Tape plastic spoons or the like to the sides to shape arms.

Cut out desired sheets of cheesecloth to drape over the figures. Two or three layers of cheesecloth makes the ghost look really good. (You can find cheesecloth at hardware and craft stores.)

Put Elmer's glue in a dish and add some water until it is thin. I probably used 1 bottle of Elmer's glue and about 1/3 cup water. (Martha Stewart uses liquid starch, and I read you can also use heavy sugar water. But Elmer's glue works great too and it's what we had on hand.)

After you dip the cheesecloth in the glue, squeeze off all of the excess and drape it over the form, one layer at a time, until you like what you see. (If I could do it over, I would have put foil or waxed paper down on the table instead of newspaper, because- hello, newspaper STICKS to elmer's glue and it was a pain to peel them off.) They need about one and a half days to dry thoroughly. Enjoy!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Marisa, I love this website! Why I have never noticed it before is beyond me! It truly inspires me! Keep it up..love you

A.Jean said...

I too just noticed the link to your new blog. You go girl. This is so cute and I love the egg thing. I also recall that one time many many moons ago, the man of the house had done the same thing in our fridge. If I recall correctly, it required a quick run to the store to bail us for whatever required an egg in the raw. Great stuff. Great outlet and I appreciate you sharing all these tidbits. Love from the farm, Jean