DIY Ghost – Easy & Inexpensive Halloween Decoration!
This DIY ghost is so simple to make. It takes all of a few minutes to assemble and is made up of budget-friendly materials.
A plastic jar, a battery light, and a piece of cheese cloth — hung in a tree, they glide white in the daytime and glow at night. Keep reading to find out how to make them yourself.
A Budget-Friendly DIY Ghost
You can likely find all of the supplies to make these DIY ghosts at a store like Dollar Tree. To be completely honest, I originally went searching for decorative ghosts that I could buy at the store, but I either could not find anything, or the price was outrageously high — I saw a set of 6 glowing LED ghosts for nearly $80.
Rest assured, these DIY ghosts are super inexpensive and so easy to make that the kiddos will want to make them too. Plus, you will not have to stop at just making one, and they will last for many Halloween seasons to come.
Watch How to Make DIY Ghosts
In this video you will see just how easy it is to assemble these budget-friendly supplies to make a DIY ghost.
We decided to line our trees with multiple ghosts. During the day they are white and glide with the wind, but at night, once the lights are turned on, they look just like glowing ghosts with their black eyes visible.
Materials
What you need
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Step-by-Step Instructions
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Add the eyes
On a plastic jar, place dot stickers as eyes.
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Add the light
Open the lid of the jar and insert the battery-powered light.
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Glue on the hook
On the lid, hot glue a pipe cleaner.
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Drape the cheese cloth
Thread a piece of cheese cloth through the pipe cleaner so it hangs longer than the container.
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Tie it off
Tie the pipe cleaner into a hook, and close the lid.
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Hang it up
Your DIY ghost is now ready to be used as Halloween decor. Be sure to turn it on when it is dark out and turn it off to preserve the battery for the next day.
Our Halloween Favorites
The games, costumes and sensory bits my kids actually come back to every October.
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Tips on Making This DIY Ghost
This project is super adaptable based on what you have. Here are other items that can be used if you do not happen to have the ones we used. Most of these supplies are available at stores like Dollar Tree.
What you can swap
- The ghost’s body. We used plastic jars, but you can use other items like a water bottle or an empty plastic ornament ball.
- The ghost’s eyes. We used black velcro stickers, but you could cut out circles in felt or even glue on black pom pom eyes.
- The white sheet. We used cheese cloth, but you could use a white rag or an old white t-shirt. The thinner the material the better.
- The light. The key is to make sure it fits through the opening of whatever container you choose for your ghost’s body. We used string lights, but battery operated candles can work well if you can fit them.
Beyond a DIY Ghost: Printable Halloween Activities
This printable bundle of Halloween-themed activities is full of opportunities for kids to learn early childhood education skills. It has 2 dozen unique activities that will keep the kids busy and learning the whole month of October.
Activities include shape recognition, matching, phonics, letter recognition, counting, number recognition, coloring, writing practice, scissor skills, emotions, measurements, and patterns, to name a few.
For more printable activities, visit our full collection.
More Ways to Explore Artistic Mediums
Here are my top picks for arts and crafts kits that encourage hands-on creations.
Create beautiful marbled art with this easy to use kit. This is water based art and comes with all the tools needed to create 10 masterpieces!
This fun kit allows kiddos to explore both spin art and spiral art. The kit comes with 3 spiro gears, 6 markers, 3 ink bottles, 15 paper discs, and an art station base.
This sand art kit comes with 8 different colors of sand to create sand bottles and pendant bottles. A great way to discover art through a different medium!
This kit is a fun way for kids to create and display amazing shapes and designs artistically made with string. Use a pattern included in the kit or create your own!
All activities should be supervised by an adult. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. This post may contain affiliate links.
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