DIY a Halloween Ghost Dog

My assistant Brittany was very excited to help make her look-a-like ghost dog.  To make a ghost dog you will need a tomato cage, a rubber or Styrofoam ball, a cardboard tube, craft foam, and either a  white sheet or shower curtain.  I found a white plastic shower curtain at Dollar Tree for $1.25.  I decided to use that since the ghost dogs will be on our front porch.  

In this photo I show how a bit on what to do, and what not to do. I first placed a rubber ball on the very top of the tomato cage, but that made the dog taller than I wanted to be.  Also if you plan to light up your dog it's not the best idea to use a red ball. (I will show you why later in the post.  :) I decided that I had to adjust the size of the tomato cage.

I could not find my picture of what the tomato cage and ball should look like when I was making the dogs, so I took a picture under my finished dog today.   D helped me fold down the top part of the tomato cage.  When we are done with Halloween, the cage can be used again.  After doing this, the ball fit snuggly on the top of the tomato cage.  I used a combination of hot glue and duct tape to attach the cardboard tube to the ball to make the snout.  

I covered the tomato cage with the white shower curtain. I then made eyes and noses out of craft foam.  My golden's ears are made with tan craft foam, my black lab has black felt ears.  

I found some white trick or treat pumpkins at Walmart the other day, and thought they would look cute with the dogs.  I plan place tea lights in them so they light up at night. 

Remember when I said it is not the best idea to use a red ball.  When the dogs are lit up at night, my lab's brains glow red.  LOL!   Oh well, I think it looks kind of cute, like she is a zombie ghost dog. 

Watch for more easy and fun Halloween decor ideas to be posted soon.  

 

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Easy Plastic Pumpkin Pail Crafts

 

Now that Spooky Season is here, plastic pumpkins are available for not only Trick or Treating, but also for crafting. 

 

I bought four plastic pumpkin pails, and used them in different ways to decorate our front porch. 

** This post also contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links.

The first pumpkin craft I made was the sitting pumpkin witch. I found the supplies I needed from the Dollar Tree. You will need two sets of witch legs, and a witch hat.  I found everything for $1.25 each.  

One set of the witch legs will be used for the pumpkin's legs. I filled them with a plastic bag to give them a little bit of dimension. 

Since they do not sell witch arms, I had to alter the second set of witch legs.  I cut out the shape of mitten out of the felt shoes, so it looked like the picture above. 

I also filled the arms with plastic bags to give them dimension as well. I attached both the arms and legs to the pumpkin with hot glue.  

 The last step was to remove the plastic handle and glue on the witch hat. I only glued it about 2/3 of the way around though, because you want some space to add a tea light or push light. Both types of lights are available the Dollar Tree. 

A very simple way to add some Halloween fun to your porch is by making a Halloween lantern.  Dollar Tree has planter chains near their floral section for $1.25.  I am not sure if they are available all year or if they are seasonal.

We hung this pumpkin on the front of our porch and added a Dollar Tree Strobe light that changes colors.

I don't have a good picture of pumpkin we placed around the light fixture on our porch. First we cut off the handle, then cut down the back of the pumpkin.  Depending on the size if the light fixture you will need to remove the bottom of the pumpkin and some of the back so that it fits around your light fixture. 

The last pumpkin craft that I made is to make a pumpkin head candlestick.  I found a black pillar candlestick  at the Dollar Tree and glue it to the bottom of the pumpkin.  I also added a gem spider from the Halloween party section. 

If you order from DollarTree.com, they are offering Free Shipping up to $50 through Sept 7th with the code FREESHIP.   If available you can also have items shipped free to your local store!

Happy Crafting! 

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Halloween Pool Noodle Candles DIY

This is the first time I have attempted to try to make pool noodle candles.  Since it is Halloween time, I wanted to make them spooky candles.  

** This post also contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links.

I used one pool noodle and cut it into 8 pieces of various sizes, a pizza pan, battery tea lights, and a glue gun.  When decorating my candles I also used some black roses and Dahlias.  All of the supplies came from the Dollar Tree. 

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I arranged the noodles until I liked how they looked on the pan, before hot gluing them in place.  

I then used the hot glue to make drips on the noodles to make it  look like candle wax. 

PRO TIP - if you have a duel temp glue gun make the drips with the LOW SETTING.  Thankfully I started with the two smallest candles, because I had my glue gun on high. Oops! I may have melted them a bit.  It's okay though, they will be hidden with the flowers later. 

I used black paint to cover the glue drips. I only had white tea lights, so I also painted the top half black as well.  I have seen some people use spray paint for this step. I did not have any on hand,  so I used acrylic paint, 

Since the tea lights  will fit into the pool noodles, I did not need to paint the bottom half.  

Once the candles were done, it was time to decorate the pan. 

I glued on two large black Dahlias, and a black rose bundle from the Dollar Tree . I would have use more rose bundles, but I only found one. I took apart the rose bundle, and with the Dahlias I had enough flowers to cover the entire pan.  

I LOVE how my pool noodle candles turned out. It was so easy to make.  I am now planning on making a white candles for Christmas, and decorating them with Christmas flowers.  
 

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How to Make a Dollar Tree Light Up Ghost

I made both of these ghosts using only Dollar Tree products. They are really easy to make, and look so cute hanging out on the table.  

** This post also contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links

The first ghost I made was the mop head ghost. To make this ghost you will need a mop head, a plastic vase (it's upside down in this photo) and some black felt. I found this multipack of 8 sheets of felt in the craft aisle. 

Using my glue gun, I glued the mop head on top of the upside down plastic vase. It should look like Cousin It from the Addams family but with white hair.  :)  You can leave the strands of the mop in one piece, or separate them like I did in the next photo.  

I personally like the look of separated strands for my ghost.  The string looks lighter and fluffier, and it is a little easier for light to shine through.  

   

Using the black felt in the multipack and cut out two circles for the eyes of the ghost.  

I added the eyes with my glue gun. I also used the felt to make my ghost a hat. While I like his hat, I thought I might find something else that might work better.   

I found this hanging ghost with the perfect hat.  I removed the hat from this ghost and saved the fabric. 

Doesn't this hat look so much better.  I used my glue gun to keep it in place.  

The taller ghost is even easier to make. You will need one of these 36 inch hanging ghost , another vase or paper towel holder.  My store was completely out of paper towel holders, so I used another yellow vase.  

Underneath the white sheet of the hanging ghost is this Styrofoam head and arms. You are going use this as the base of your ghost. 

There are two ways you can make this ghost.  You can attach the head to one of Dollar Tree's paper towel holders, if you can find one.  I have not been able to find one recently, but when I do, I plan on making another ghost.  Instead, I attached the head to the top of the upside down plastic vase like we did to the other ghost. 

I folded over the fabric, and draped it over the head and vase. I hid the pre-printed face on the bottom side of the fabric.  

I used the green hat version of the hanging ghost for this ghost's hat. Since I was not able to keep that ghost in one piece while trying to remove it's hat, I reused it's eyes for this ghost.  I also decided to add a small green pumpkin that I found in the Halloween aisle. 

I used the Dollar Tree push lights for both ghosts.  You will need three AAA batteries per light.  I placed the light underneath the vases, and they lit up nicely. 

Which type of ghost do you like better?  If you would like to see a quick reel tutorial on how to make the mop ghost, you can see how on my Instagram page here.

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Glowing Alien Heads for Halloween

I wanted to make something easy and fun to use on Halloween night.  I realized that when a milk jug is turned upside down, it looks a lot like an alien head.   I had a lot of empty milk jugs that were in recycling bin, so I pulled them out and got to work.  

I painted the circle eyes with a little bit of black craft paint.  It needed 2-3 coats since the milk jugs were plastic.  

I decided to make seven alien heads to guide the way  up the sidewalk to our front door when the trick or treaters come on Halloween night. To keep them in place, I placed them over half of bamboo skewer, and then pushed the open jug a little bit into the ground. 

The other day I picked up a couple packages of glow sticks from the dollar store. Right before it got dark, I placed one of the glowing bracelets (from the 8 pk) into the milk jug.  I waited until it got dark and then went outside to see if it worked. This is how it looked with only one bracelet in the jug. There was a little glow, but it was not very bright.  

I added a second glow stick bracelet, and it is really started to glow. You could definitely see the green color.  I am glad that I tried the glowing heads tonight so I know it will work for real on Halloween night.  I will probably bring in the alien heads so they do not get rained on or blow away before Friday night.  If you do try to make some alien heads of your own, I suggest using 2-3 glow sticks per head. If you use the 8 packs, the entire cost for 8 glowing alien heads is only $2-$3.  While I used green in my alien heads, you could use any color glow sticks. I also picked up some orange, so I might give that one a try.  

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