Grocery Bag Ghost

If it seems like I spent the bulk of my time last week taking pictures... it would be true! However, here is a fun craft project that I did with my kids last night. With a few simple materials, you get a Halloween decoration that is kid-friendly to make, water/weather-proof and, best of all, free!

You will need:
- Old newspaper (or the 257 ads that came in your mailbox toady)
- Leftover grocery bags
- String
- Black permanent marker
- Scissors
- Small goblins who can "help" you (read: hinder your every move but love participating in the activity anyway)

Spread out the grocery bag and cut away any store logo . Cut off the handles.

Have your goblins choose a newspaper page and crumple it into a ball along with the logo and handles of the cut-up bag. Wrap another bag around the newspaper ball so that mostly white is showing (this is to keep the face of the ghost white. Alternately you could fill the head with something else, like paper towels, but it's up to you).

Put the newspaper/bag ball into the center of the cut-up plastic bag and wrap it up. Hold the neck of the ghost while your older goblin ties it with string to secure it. This should take several hours.

Leave the ends of the strings long so you can tie the ghosts in your tree. Let your younger goblins dictate the faces of the ghosts (happy, sad, Vampire, spooky, scary, masked-Mexican-wrestler... ) and draw them on with black permanent marker.

Since the heads of the ghost weigh more than the bottoms, it helps to stick them in a small fork in the tree to hold them upright. If you just hang the ghost from the string, you will have upside-down ghosts haunting your tree. Use the long strings to secure their position in the branches.

Happy Haunting!