The Spooky Halloween Decoration You Can Make With Cheesecloth

With Halloween just around the corner, plenty of people are scrambling to perfect the finishing touches on their costumes and home decorations. It can definitely be easy to go overboard with spending for this holiday, especially when faced with a limitless selection of eerie paraphernalia. However, unless you are investing in a set of recurring decorations that you will use for decades, something fun and budget-friendly will do the trick. All you need is a smidgen of creative energy to get on board with this spooky spirit idea.

You can find similar renditions of this idea from a number of DIY sources, however, as with anything craft-related, Martha Stewart, aka The Queen of Domestic Arts, does it best. Stewart calls her creation cheesecloths spirits, which gives you a good hint as to one of the primary items required to pull off this ghostly garnish (via Martha Stewart's website). Not only is cheesecloth useful for making cheese and a number of other practical cooking applications, but it is also perfect for artsy purposes. The Elmer's Glue website details a similar ghoulish craft you can make using none other than its trusty glue, so there is room for adjustment depending on the materials you can find.

In Martha Stewart's version, each spooky figure (the more the spookier) requires four 7-foot long pieces of cheesecloth, a styrofoam mannequin head, a sponge brush, some glue, and screw eyes, monofilament, and temporary hooks to hang it (via Martha Stewart's website). According to Stewart, you should be able to source styrofoam heads from a wig shop. One by one, place a layer of cheesecloth over the head, then brush it down with watery glue. Continue until you have placed four layers on the head, then wait for the glue to dry completely. Finally, to hang your masterpiece, attach a screw eye to the top of the head with some glue and pass the string through the hole to hang it from a hook.

The Elmer's Glue version is slightly messier because it requires you to soak the cheesecloth in a bowl filled with watered-down glue. However, if you can't get your hands on a mannequin head but have balloons and a tin can lying around, this option is your best bet. Instead of being hung from a hook, the cheesecloth stiffens thanks to the glue, making these freestanding ghosts. The hanging ghosts might look great hanging out in a doorway or dangling from a front entrance for an eerie welcome, and the second style can sit along any flat surface.