An Easy DIY Ghost Craft (That Lights Up!) For Halloween

Watch the video tutorial below to see how our mini sheet ghosts are made!

To make your own mini DIY ghost craft, you’ll need:

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How to Make Mini Sheet Ghosts – DIY Instructions:

Learn how to create these creepy-cute glow-in-the-dark ghosts with our easy step-by-step tutorial.

Find or create a simple drying base.

To prep, we’re going to need something we can lay our ghosts over to dry that will help give them their ghostly shape. Any object that’s about 4 inches tall and has a rounded top will work.

I put together a very rough, but very effective base using a piece of egg carton, a wooden bead, and a small cut of pipe cleaner that I strung through both to hold them together.

Cut a small square of fabric.

Cut a rough 5-6 inch square or circle from scrap fabric. I used some leftover white cotton scraps, but you can use anything you have. Go for the classic white sheet ghost, make a set with wild patterns, or use your favorite fall color palette!

These don’t have to be perfect squares or circles – in fact, it gives them a bit of personality to have some off-kilter edges.

We noticed that if we rounded off the corners our ghosts sat on surfaces a bit differently than if we used more of a square shape, and I love the variety!

Brush with water and glue.

Using a small container of tap water and a paintbrush, brush your fabric with a little water.

Squeeze a few lines of school glue over the fabric, then dipping your paintbrush in the water again, brush the glue over the fabric until it’s saturated with the blended water and glue mixture.

Lay the fabric over your base and let dry.

Gently place your fabric over the drying base. You can let it air dry, or speed up the process using a hair dryer on low heat to quickly dry your little ghosts.

These will create shapes of their own, but you can also gently twist and mold the fabric around the base as you use the hairdryer if you’d like to play around with the draping.

Add ghost features.

Now you can customize your ghouls with delightful details! Give them simple faces, by using a hole punch to make small paper dots that can be glued on with school glue.

Don’t feel like you have to stick to the same process I used, though. You can draw faces with paint pens, glue on felt features, or use googly eyes and tiny accessories (bowtie, anyone!?) for your own sweet, silly, or spooky ghost creations.

Conjure Up Some Spooky DIY Ghost Decor

Gather ’round spectral friends, as we summon some supernatural Halloween vibes with a few delightfully haunting homemade ghost decor ideas…

Materialize Your Mini Ghosts

• Create a haunting of festive phantoms. Turn all of your ghastly scraps of fabric or sheets into a series of 10, 20, or more little ghosties for observant guests to spot around the house. Admire their spine-tingling glow atop shelves and sills to give guests a fright…or smile.
• Light them up! Add ghostly lights for a supernatural shine as you arrange your ghastly display. Illuminate your ghosts with LED tea lights for a bewitching glow.
• Make a ghost mobile. Manifest a circle of fabric ghouls and hang several ghosts at varying heights from a piece or wire, a stick, or the ceiling to create a ghostly mobile in any room.
• Turn them into bedroom nightlights. Give your bedroom a Halloween makeover by placing these ghostly glow-in-the-dark spirits on your bedside tables for a subtle and spooky nightlight effect.

Make an Easy Ghost Terrarium With Kids

Ghost jars and easy DIY ghost terrariums are a fantastic way to incorporate elements of nature and a bit of visual storytelling into your kids Halloween ghost crafting.

To make a DIY ghost terrarium:

• Select a sweet (or sinister!) container to contain your phantoms. Choose a clear plastic or glass container like half of a recycled pop bottle, a wide-mouth mason jar, a large vase, or glass cloche to serve as the terrarium vessel. Make sure it is deep enough to contain a small ghost or two and other materials.
• Line the bottom with nature supplies for an unearthly scene. Add rocks, pebbles, moss, sticks, leaves, or other natural materials to the bottom to create a base. This gives your ghost a haunted little scene.
• Add seasonal details. Take tissue paper and crumple it up to create a wispy filler that looks like fog. Place it gently around the terrarium. Or use it as I did, for a colorful fall tree. Simply ball it up and plunk it square on top of a shapely twig – an instant fall tree (and tiny torn tissue paper pieces make fantastic leaves!).
• Nestle in ghosts to complete your creepy indoor haunt! Tuck in 1-2 mini fabric ghosts, keeping their placement loose and uneven. We put a flameless tea light underneath ours.
• Top your terrarium lid to complete the haunted scene! This step is optional (I didn’t do it for our photos) but the ghosts peering out from the green moss and foggy steamed glass after a couple of days in a covered terrarium definitely add to the mystery!

More Halloween Ghost Crafts for Kids

• Paper ghost art
• Haunted Halloween landscapes
• Cardboard ghost family portraits

Pair this ghost-making activity with a phantom-themed read-aloud from our collection of top Halloween children’s book picks!

And don’t forget to queue up our kid-friendly Halloween playlist while you scare up your favorite Halloween crafts – monster-recommended,kid-approved jams!