Sunday, October 12, 2014

Easy DIY Tomato Cage Ghost

This year, Leigh and I decided to make our Halloween decorations a little bit creepier and scary. So we changed up the plant shelf that overlooks the living room and added a tomato cage ghost. It was incredibly easy to make and I love how spooky it looks.

Spooky Halloween Decorations, creepy Halloween, Halloween DIY, tomato cage ghost, Dollar Tree

I didn't take enough pictures as I was putting it together, so I'll try to explain it step by step. 

Here's what you will need to make your own - 

1. Tomato Cage (I used the small one)
2. White Fabric ( I used 2 pieces about 4'x4' that I cut from a twin sheet)
3. White Christmas Lights (I had a string of icicle lights that worked well, but a regular string 
     would work too)
4. Small piece of quilt batting
5. Dollar Tree Skull and 2 Skeleton Hand Yard Stakes
6. Chicken wire or some type of stiff wire to make the arms
7. Thin wire to attach the arms
8. Safety pins to attach the fabric

Start by cutting a hole in the bottom of the skull.  We used our handy dandy hot knife from Michaels. If you don't have one, you need to get one immediately! This thing is the bomb! It cuts plastic, foam core board and pumpkins like cutting butter. It is fast becoming my favorite crafting tool.

Use the hot knife to cut small holes in the eye sockets and a hole in the back of the skull so that you can insert the lights.

Gather the three spikes on the tomato cage, twist them together and poke them into the skull. Then make small tubes of chicken wire for the arms. We actually used decorative garden fencing to make the arms for our ghost.  Wire the skeleton hand stakes to the arms. I also put a bit of hot glue on the stake where it is inserted into the hand to make sure that it won't come off. 


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Twine the lights onto the cage and insert individual lights into the eye holes. Wrap the skull with quilt batting to give it a larger head. This also helps the fabric drape nicely.  Wrap one piece of the white fabric around the body and arms of the ghost and secure with safety pins in the back. Then wrap the other piece over the head and safety pin under the chin. We also tattered the edges of this piece.

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This took all of about 30 minutes to throw together and it looks super creepy
 with it's shining eyes and skeleton hands.

Spooky Halloween Decorations, creepy Halloween, Halloween DIY, tomato cage ghost, Dollar Tree

Only 2 weeks until our Halloween party and just 3 weeks until Halloween - can you believe it? Hope that I can get everything on our to do list done by then, but if not, there's always next year!

Happy Haunting!


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7 comments:

  1. So fun and scary, just so clever, I will have to use your wonderful ideas, I love Halloween with all the spooky scary fun that comes with it...love to invite you over for a visit, lots of Halloween...

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    Replies
    1. Thanks so much Phyllis! Can't say this was a completely original idea, but we did mix it up with the skull and skeleton hands. Thanks for dropping by!

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  2. Replies
    1. Thanks so much for stopping by! Happy Haunting!

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  3. Your ghost is terrific! It looks "real!" You two have such wonderful fun creating and sharing here. I am going to spend some time looking at your older posts for some great ideas!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks so much! Halloween is our favorite Holiday as you can see! Happy Haunting!

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  4. Just a side note - if you are having problems finding the hands - I saw 2 in a package of the very same hands with the stakes at Michaels yesterday. They were $4.99 but on sale for 40% off. You have to buy very early at Dollar Tree because the good stuff sells out quick!

    ReplyDelete

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