I’m in Love with These Cute Ghost Crafts — Here Are 5 to Try

For a holiday that is one day long, Halloween really enjoys a full season. From October 1 to 31, I like to believe I am living in Halloweentown. Carved pumpkins, purple twinkle lights, dancing skeleton pillows — if it has a pinch of spooky and a dash of adorable, I am all in. And apparently, my algorithms know how I feel, because lately I can’t scroll without coming across a piece of Halloween decor. My favorite category of said content? Cute and simple-looking ghost crafts. I have bookmarked more than I can possibly make in one season, but I will absolutely be DIYing a Casper-esque taper candle or two. Below, check out my favorite ghost crafts.

Suddenly, I need to throw a Halloween dinner party. All you need for this craft is a box of white taper candles, a black acrylic paint pen, and a container for hot water. This creator recommends heating the candles up over the course of 20 minutes in a tub of hot tap water, then bending them super slowly into a wavy form. Draw on a “boo” shaped mouth and some big, oval eyes and you’ve got some candlesticks ready for any Halloween-themed tablescape or mantel. 

I’ve seen this craft all over social media and it has stolen my heart. Take a painting you have but have grown bored of, or head to your local thrift store to buy one on the cheap. Remove the frame, take out your acrylic paints, and let your artistic vision take over. Use some white paints to add some floating ghosts to your landscape. You can stop there, with this ghostly Easter egg, or go to town on making the rest of the painting fit the October aesthetic, too. Turn the green trees into orange foliage, add some spider webs to the edge of the buildings in your painting, and paint a broomstick-riding figure into the sky. 

This craft has the energy of the goth beach house (do you remember that meme?). Seashells may derive from the oceanside, but this easy-as-can-be DIY turns them into something decidedly Halloweeny. Either raid your summertime shell collection or make an autumn trip to the shore to collect some white, oblong shells of different sizes. Clean them off, use a black Sharpie to ink some eyes onto them, and voila! Ghost shells. 

If throw pillows are important to you, there’s a good chance you swap them out seasonally. And if so, this no-sew ghost pillow is the craft for you. All you need is a round pillow insert, some fuzzy white fabric (and a small swatch of black fabric, too), a hot-glue gun, and some scissors. Cut enough white fabric to fit around your pillow, snip some big ovals out of the black fabric to form the eyes, and hot-glue it all together. To go the extra adorable mile, you can buy a plush pumpkin and zip-tie it onto the white fabric to make it look like your cozy ghost is holding a tiny pumpkin in its invisible hands. 

I am all for a good holiday garland. Dried oranges strung across my doorway or colorful felt garland swooping from my mantel? Yes, please. While most of the Halloween options are heavy on the orange and black tinsel, this bookish craft takes a more neutral-toned approach. Take an old book you’re planning on donating, pick one up for a dollar or less at your local thrift shop, or use last week’s newspaper and cut a bunch of ghost shapes out of the pages. To make the work quick, use a cardboard cutout guide and cut multiple layers of paper at once. Then, use a black marker to draw eyes on the ghosts and adhere them all to a long piece of twine using small pieces of double-sided tape. Hang up the garland and let your ghosts float freely around your home.