DIY: ghosties

Today, the kids & I made cute ghosties to hang from our front porch.  It's super sad to admit that I almost never make crafty projects with all of my kids at the same time.  Probably because they range in age from 12 to 3 & have their own crazy personalities & want to touch everything & make things - things we are not making - before I've told them what to do.  But this project was super easy & I thought I'd share it with ya:

Oh, by the way, we call them ghosties because the little ones do not like scary Halloween things.  So Halloween is officially cute at our house.

step 1: gather materials

You will need some styrofoam balls (I purchased mine at Michaels in the floral section), scissors, an old bed sheet (or any white material will do), scissors, ribbon (we used black), a pencil (must be sharpened), a paper piercer (mine is the the black Stampin' Up! kit.  If you don't have one, use a needle.), & fishing line.

step 2: poke hole through center of ball

Using your pencil, poke a hole all the way through your ball.  If it's too hard to push, twist the pencil till it comes out on the other side.

step 3: cut fabric & mark the middle
I didn't measure my square.  Just make sure that your fabric square (from your old sheet or material) will be big enough to cover your ball and that there will be enough fabric to hang down.  I snipped my material & then tore it the rest of the way to give it a rough edge. 

Then mark an X in the center of your fabric.  Again, you can eyeball this.  If your X is not exactly in the center, it's really okay.

step 4: poke hole through your X
Using a sharp tool (I used a paper piercer, but you can use a needle if you want), poke a hole through your X.  So I wouldn't poke my fingers, I put my fabric square over my ball & then poked my hole. 

step 5: tie fishing line to your ball
Cut a really long piece of string (about 2 yards....but, you can probably guess....I eyeballed it.)  Take one end of the string and fish it through the hole you made with your pencil.  This takes some patience ;)  And once you've got it through, line up the ends of your string so they are even and tie a knot with the fishing line. 

step 6:  put fishing line through your hole in fabric
Remember that little hole you poked through your white fabric??  Now you can put your fishing line through the hole!

step 7: tie a simple bow
Cut a long piece of ribbon.  Mine is probably about 36 inches.  Gather the fabric under the ball & hold it tight under the ball.  Tie the ribbon around it & make a cute bow.  Let the ends hang long.

step 8: add eyes
Cut eyes any shape you like and glue them on with your fabric glue.  Boo decided her ghost should have triangular eyes.  The rest of us gave our ghosties circular & oval eyes.  Ooooh la la!

step 9: hang your ghosties
Our front porch has hooks that made it easy to hang our cute ghosties.  I tied a knot at the top of the fishing line of each ghostie and hung them at alternating heights.  It looks much cuter that way ;)

Thanks for stopping by!!  I love my followers :D  Oh, & next week.....drumroll please.......I'll be back on Monday for Make It Monday: Treat Bags!!!!

See ya then!
--Anna