Family Friday Project

Thanks so much for visiting me! Today's project is featured on CrazyaboutCricut.blogspot.com on Jenny's wonderful Family Fridays!!

I LOVE crafting with my kiddos, I have a 5 and 8 year old.  Both of my boys love decorating for the holidays.  Today I'll be sharing a project that includes the kids, recycling and decorating!!

The materials you'll need to make these cute light up ghosts are:

recycled white sheet/s

recycled tomato cage - one per ghost

recycled plastic containers - to make the faces

black garbage bag

Christmas lights - recycled or new

(can be regular, icicle etc.)

wire or zip ties

a few binder clips

Step 1: Gather up a few (or as many as you'd like) tomato cages. I used 54" ones here, they can be used or new.  I repurposed some old used ones because I grow my tomatoes hanging upside down now).

Step 2: Flip the cages upside down - spike side up - and curve the spikes down to great a ghost "head" shape.  I secure the spiked ends to the body of the cage with zip ties (wire ties, etc.).

Step 3: Secure the Christmas lights to the cages using zip ties too.  Start at the bottom, leaving the plug end loose enough to reach a power source.  Wrap the lights up the cage, securing with the ties.

Step 4: Make your ghost cover-ups using recycled sheets. I didn't have any on hand so I ran out to Goodwill  and grabbed one.  You'll be cutting up your sheets to cover the ghost frames. There aren't really measurements for this step.  I cut one King sheet and covered three ghosts.  Secure the sheets onto the frames with a couple of binder clips.

Step 5: Have your kids make the ghost faces. I had my boys trace out circles for the ghost eyes and freehand the mouth shape.  We drew out all the shapes on lids of recycled plastic containers like Cool Whip or Cottage Cheese comes in.  

How funny... look at his concentration face! :)

Step 6: I cut out the shapes with sharp scissors.  You can have your child do this, but I know how easy accidents happen when cutting the lips off of the plastic lids.

Step 7: I used ATG glue runner to attach garbage bag scraps to the plastic face pieces. I then let my boys trim the black plastic off the faces.

Step 8: Attach the face pieces to the sheets where the faces will be.  I used Mighty Mend It (bought at Walgreen's for $10).  Let the glue dry.

Step 9: I always check my lights in the house before taking the ghosts outside.

Step 10: Take your new ghosts outside and plug 'em in!! Enjoy!!

My kids are so proud of their ghosts that when walking home from the bus stop, they tell all the neighbor kids to come and look!! :)

We only have homemade Halloween decorations in our yard. 

Here are some more pics of our haunted graveyard.

Garbage bag spider - measures just over 12 feet wide.

Spider egg sack - made of clear garbage bags
and black spider rings

Wooden, hand painted,  grave marker

Hand painted wooden Grave marker

Wooden Grave marker, hand painted

The Grave markers lit up in the front yard.

Thanks so much for visiting me here at CardsbyCG.blogspot.com.  I'd love to hear what you think.  Feel free to become a follower or sign up for my email updates (provided through FeedBurner).  I'd love to share my crafting journey with you! - Cheryl