BOO! Cheesecloth Ghost Container Decoration
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It's one of those things that I didn't know about before the arrival of Pinterest: the BOO bucket. A chance to surprise your friends, neighbors, and co-workers with a little Halloween fun, you can find lots of cute ideas for how to BOO at BooItForward.com, and get everything you need to make a great BOO project at Walmart or Walmart.com.
This Halloween, I decided to bring the BOO tradition into my life, by creating this fun BOO Ghost Container to surprise my co-workers with a little spooky fun and sweets. The ghost is easy to make and so versatile; you can really use any size or shape container, but I recommend you stick with glass.
I picked up a tall skinny vase at Walmart, but you can use anything, even an old pasta sauce jar would work!
Cheesecloth Ghost Decoration
Supplies
- Glass Container
- Liquid Starch
- Cheesecloth
- Pipe Cleaners
- Balloon
- Googley Eyes
- Masking/Painters Tape
Directions
- Inflate balloon to size to wedge firmly into top of container, then tuck in 2 pipe cleaners for the arm shape.
- Place container on a cookie sheet to protect your table from drips.
- Drape the cheesecloth over and trim so it fits front and back. (Don't worry about wrinkles)
- Cut two more pieces of cheesecloth to same length.
- Pour 2″ of starch into a bowl, and submerge one piece of cheesecloth.
- When removing wet cloth from bowl, squeeze carefully to remove excess starch (it will still be drippy)
- Drape carefully over the balloon form, smoothing wrinkles and laying all as a single layer.
- Repeat for each arm, overlapping in the middle over the balloon.
- Arrange the bottom of the ghost so it isn't folded in, and lays flat enough to act as a base for the finished product.
- Let sit overnight to dry. You'll notice there will be excess starch pooled at the bottom.
- Move from cookie sheet onto a drying rack so the bottom can finish drying. (The top of it will dry quickly; the bottom will stay damp for a while. When the base is dry, you can remove it carefully from the form.
- Peel the stiffened cloth from the glass container, pop the balloon if needed, remove the pipe cleaners from the arms. You now have a freestanding ghost and a container!
Decorations
- Add googley eyes.
- Attach American Greetings® Halloween stickers to cardstock and cut out to be flags on banner.
- Use decorative twine to string the banner.
- Attached to the ghost's “hands” with a large needle, and tie a knot to hold the end secure.
- And your ghost is done!
Setting up the BOO basket
- Pick up your favorite Halloween treats at Walmart. We chose a variety of classic favorites, including M&M'S®, SNICKERS®, TWIX®, Skittles®, Starburst®, Life Savers® Gummies, Canada Dry™, and A&W Root Beer. (These adorable limited edition mini monster cans are only available in-store at Walmart. So cute!)
- Be sure to print out your free You've Been BOO'd printable from BooItForward.com, so that the lucky recipient knows what to do next.
- Load your container up with all your goodies. It's OK to fill higher than the top, since the ghost's head will leave some space!
- Once your container is full, you can simply slip the finished ghost over the top of it for a festive topper, and decoration that can stay up throughout the season!
It's time to BOO!
The process for BOO’ing is easy.
Make a BOO Bundle.
Secretly Deliver it.
BOO it Forward.
I suppose one of the advantages of my office is that no one spends all day sitting at their desks; sneaking stuff in is pretty simple, so I brought my BOO ghost to work with me and waited for someone to go into a meeting.
Once it's been discovered, the ghost and it's coordinating container make a cute desk decoration to hang around and haunt your office through the season.
This is such a fun way to bring a little Halloween fun into your day, I think this might have to be a tradition we stick with. Who would you BOO?
Bonus: Get $1 cash back with ibotta when you buy monster cans! Also be sure to download the Mini Monsters AR App: The monster on each can comes to life with an augmented reality experience. The monsters interact with each other! You can activate the experience by downloading the app by visiting www.minimonsters.com.
Find more ideas at BOOItForward.com
