DIY Cheese Cloth Ghosts

I love these cheese cloth ghosts. They are very easy to make and a fun project for kids. Follow the instructions below to make your own.

What you will need:

• Spray starch
• Cheese cloth
• Soda bottle
• Metal hanger
• Balloon
• Scissors
• Tape 

Bend the hanger to look like arms and tape to top of soda bottle. Blow balloon to make a medium sized head for your ghost. Tape the balloon and hanger to make sure everything is secure.

Here is a front view.

If you don't have a soda bottle and hanger, or you want to make a smaller ghosts, use whatever you have around the house to make a ghost-like shape.

I taped plastic spoons to a spray can to make a smaller ghost. I then covered it with a plastic bag to protect the spray paint.

After you made your ghost shapes, cut a square of cheese cloth. There should be enough fabric to drape around the "feet" of the ghost.

Spray the cheese cloth with starch spray. I put 3 coats on my ghosts. You could also use some Elmer's glue to add more stability.

Fall and Halloween Decoration Ideas from Chet Chat

Watch and see how you can make easy and affordable Fall and Halloween decor. This segment was filmed for Chet Chat on WLAE New Orleans.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZY0eO1tASg&list=HL1351017640&feature=mh_lolz

Drop Cloth Emerald Green Painted Chevron Pillow

Emerald green is the color of Fall. The easiest way to keep on trend is to change out pillows and accessories. Follow the instructions below to make your own emerald green chevron pillow.

What you will need:

• Drop cloth (I bought mine for ~$10 at Lowes)
• Painters tape
• Fabric paint
• Stencil brush (or any paint brush)
• Sewing machine
• Ruler
• Scissors

Cut your drop cloth into a large enough piece to create two sides of a pillow. My piece was approximately 26" x 60". Use painters tape to create a chevron pattern on you drop cloth. I started off measuring and then decided it was taking was too long, so I went with a random chevron design. 

This is what the drop cloth looked like after taping it all off.

Now you can start painting. Use a stencil brush to dab on the paint. Be careful not to paint under the tape. 

 

This part takes a good hour to so, you have to be patient (which it hard for me haha)

Let the paint dry.

It was so satisfying to pull off the tape. Lucky, the paint didn't bleed under the tape.

I let the paint dry over night. 

Time to make the pillow. The pillow I made was 22" x 22". Cut your "fabric" into two 24" x 24" squares. You can make sure they are square by folding the fabric diagonally.  

With the painted sides of the pillow facing each other, sew around three sides of the pillow, about 3/4 of an inch from the edges. You can be more precise with all your measuring, but I tend to do things the easy way because I know I will be switching out these pillows soon enough. 

After sewing around the three sides, flip the pillow inside out to show the painted side of the fabric. You can now stuff the pillow into the square you just sewed. 

Now sew around the whole pillow to create an edge that is 1/4" 

Done!

Go to this LINK to get instructions on how to make the stenciled black/white pillow that is shown.

DIY Spiral Deco Mesh Wreath

 

This wreath might look complicated to make, but it's actually very easy. It's a bit larger then 3', so it's a huge statement piece for any front door. When I looked online, these wreaths cost $80-100 to buy. Follow the instructions below to make your own for around $25

What you mill need to make your own spiral deco mesh wreath:

• 2 rolls to deco mesh. They are 21" wide and 10 yards long
• Pipe cleaners
• 18" wire wreath
• Scissors 

Supplies!

To make the spirals, cut the mesh into 10" pieces. I didn't measure anything, just guesstimate. Now you can tightly roll the mesh in the center to make a spiral. Make sure it doesn't unravel.

Roll 4 spirals this same way. Collect them all and fan them out, holding center.

Use a pipe cleaner to secure them in the center.

Secure the bunches to the wire wreath. Don't worry if it doesn't look full now, it will by the time you get all the bunches on.

This is what it looks like from the back.

DIY Sharpie Doodle Pumpkin

This is the perfect project for someone who likes to doodle. All you need is a pumpkin, a sharpie pen and some metallic paint (I had some leftover liquid leaf from another project, so that it what I used.)

I started my design at the top, I didn't have a plan of attack. You can go online for inspirational designs as well.

I thought my pumpkin needed a little bling, so I used liquid leaf to fill in some of the empty spots.

I think it turned out pretty well. 

Painted Pumpkins - Chevron

As soon as it's Fall, I start to see pumpkins in all the stores. All I want to do is take them home and carve them. But I know if I do that, they will go bad too soon for my liking. I usually resit and paint them instead. 

I started out by wiping off the pumpkin with a damp paper towel.

Now you can start painting. You can use any kind of paint, I had some left over white so that is what I used for my base coat.   

I used a roll of tape to prop up my pumpkin to make it easier to paint. 

Your pumpkin might need 2 coats of paint.

When it is dry, you can start painting the chevron design. 

Hand paint your design on as carefully as possible.

I didn't think the chevron was as clean as it could be. Luckily it was an easy fix. I used a thick sharpie to make my lines and points straighter. 

Cute!