Yay! It’s spooky season!
Ok, it’s still summer, but it’s close enough! It’s nearly fall and with that… spooky season!!! I love Halloween. Even without kids, it’s a fun holiday to decorate for and ghosts are my absolute favorite. I’ve wanted to up my Halloween porch decor game for a while, and I was checking out Pottery Barn and Grandin Road, and they both have these “lit ghosts” ie illuminated ghosts…that are really cute, but I can tell even from looking at them online that they would be pretty easy to recreate as a DIY. Pottery Barn is selling two for about $100 and Grandin Road is selling three for about $130.
I made my version of this DIY illuminated ghost for $30 and I think it looks just as good! PLUS, when you make your own, you can customize it however you want. I have two more tutorials coming up… a Scottish illuminated ghost (think red faux fur and plaid eyes) and a baby spiderwed infested ghost (more stencils!). I think it’s safe to say that my porch is going to be LIT! Now, let’s make some ghosts.
Table of Contents
- Yay! It’s spooky season!
- Materials to make a DIY illuminated ghost
- Step 1: Iron your tablecloth
- Step 2: Clothe your tomato cage
- Step 3: Add a foam head to your DIY illuminated ghost
- Step 4: Add your LED lights to illuminate your ghost
- Step 5: Make your ghost eyes and mouth
- Reveal: Your DIY illuminated ghost!
- Shop the look
Materials to make a DIY illuminated ghost
- 42″ high tomato cage ($4.98 from Home Depot)
- 8″ foam florists ball (I got 4 for $22.99 at tableclothsfactory.com)
- 108″ white round tablecloth ($9.49 from tableclothsfactory.com)
- King size white pillow case
- at least 90″ to 10 feet LED light string, battery operated preferably ($2.99 90″ from tableclothsfactory.com)
- Black felt, scrap black fabric, or black markers (for ghost eyes and mouth)
- Scissors
- Needle and black thread or hot glue gun (to attach eyes and mouth)
- Iron and ironing board
Total cost: About $30 assuming you already have the basic tools and a spare pillowcase
Step 1: Iron your tablecloth
Yes, this is boring. There’s nothing I despise more than ironing, but it will make your ghost look really nice. Alternately, you can steam it, or try drying it in the dryer first before you realize that you actually have to iron it.
Step 2: Clothe your tomato cage
If you have a very thick, opaque tablecloth, this may not be necessary. But typically, you will want to cover your tomato cage with white fabric so it doesn’t show throught. A king-size pillowcase works perfectly. For this project, you will flip your tomato cage upside down from how you would use it for caging tomatoes – so the big open ring is on the floor, and the poky parts are at the top. Encase the bottom open rings with the pillow case and pull it up until it’s just below the 3 poky parts. Secure it with a large rubber band or a string.
Step 3: Add a foam head to your DIY illuminated ghost
Now, with your hands, adjust the three poky top parts so they meet in the center. Have them criss cross upon each other. Then stick your foam head on. The foam has a lot of give, and will really just stick on there, but you may have to press hard. Keep pressing until it’s secure and all poky parts are completely engulfed in the foam ball.
Step 4: Add your LED lights to illuminate your ghost
Starting with the head, attach the end that’s not the battery to your foam head using Scotch tape. Then wrap the rest loosely around the frame, ending at the bottom. Turn on the lights to see how they look and adjust as needed.
Step 5: Make your ghost eyes and mouth
There are a few ways to do this. First, you could just grab a sharpie and draw your eyes and mouth in (you don’t need to do a mouth if you don’t want to. The Pottery Barn version is just eyes). Even though I bought this cheap polyester tablecloth just for this project, I feel like there might come a time when I may actually want to use it as a tablecloth. So I made mine out of scrap black linen fabric and just loosely sewed them on. That way, I can just cut the stitches out if I ever want to. You can also hot glue them on with a glue gun, or attach them with stitch witchery or some other means.
To sew them on, put your tablecloth onto your finished frame. Adjust it so the fabric is draping nicely and evening, and then draw your eyes and mouth on with pencil. Then, cut out the eyes and mouth from your fabric with scissors. Using a hand needle, thread it with black thread. Loosely sew the eyes and mouth on with the thread, double knotting on each end.
Reveal: Your DIY illuminated ghost!
OMG, how freaking cute is this?? It actually has a real presence, to the point of being a bit creepy, which is kind of the point, I guess! Personally, I think this will look great in a set of three, so I’m working on two other versions. This is my classic illuminated ghost, but stay tuned for my Scottish ghost and my baby spider infested ghost. I hope you have a super spooky season!
Shop the look
- See the materials list above for all the materials to make this project.
- Buy the Pottery Barn version (2 ghosts)
- Buy the Grandin Road version (3 ghosts)
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Want to see this DIY Illuminated Ghost tutorial in action? Check out the video on YouTube below.
