How to Make a Trick or Treating Ghost

Follow along and make some fun trick or treating ghosts to display for Halloween! I sometimes think I am the only crafter who has never made a tomato cage ghost! This is the year, I am making three of them! I want my little ghosts to be trick or treating at the door.

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Begin with a wire tomato cage that you will place upside down as shown below. I used a 33 inch cage. You can use a variety of sizes to make different size ghosts.

When shopping for styrofoam balls for my ghostie heads I spotted these faceless styrofoam heads about one third of the cost of the balls. These heads from Michaels are an inexpensive alternative.

This is how the bottom of the head looks.

Simply gather the points of the wire cage together and push them up into the styrofoam so that the head is secure on the wires.

You will have a wire frame with a head on top like this:

It is an option to add lights, but I want my ghosts to light up at night, so I added lights. I had these lights on hand so this is what I used. Any battery or electric lights will work. Attach the end of the lights around the neck of the ghost. You can use a twist tie or a pipe cleaner like I did to secure them around the neck.

Continue to wrap your lights around the tomato cage.

If your lights tend to slip down on the frame, use a pipe cleaner or twist tie to secure them to the cross braces on the frame. You can see how I have done that in the photo below.

This next step is also an optional one. I wanted my ghosts to have some arms so they could hold their trick or treat bags. Use a pool noodle fed through the wire frame like shown below.

Time to add the sheet. For the 33 inch high tomato cage, a twin flat sheet will cover it completely.

Cut out a pair of eyes from black felt. You can get creative with the eye shapes if you wish.

Use hot glue to attach the eyes to the sheet. If you want to attach a mouth, you can do that also!

It is time to add some personality to your ghosties! Take some craft foam and draw a moustache shape.

Cut out the foam moustache.

Pick up some paper bags and add the words “trick or treat” to them. Use a safety pin to attach the trick or treat bag to the pool noodle and sheet.

Hot glue the foam moustache to your ghost, add a hat or a wig and tiara to add that personality to your ghosts!

Tips for creating your ghosts:

If you don’t have white pool noodles and the color of the noodles is showing through the sheet, you can use a second sheet over the top of the first OR you can wrap the pool noodle in a white pillowcase before attaching it to the tomato cage.

If you want to put your ghosts out in the yard where they will be exposed to the weather, instead of covering them with sheets, you can use white plastic tablecloths. Instead of the black felt, cut the eyes out of foam sheets.

Supplies for making your own trick or treating ghosts:

White twin sheets
Black felt
Tomato cage
Battery operated lights
Hot glue gun and glue
Foam head or styrofoam ball