Cheap (Free) and Easy DIY Ghost Garland

Happy Fall!

Why yes, it has been 8 months since I last blogged. My kid was still crawling back then. The weather was cool and wintery. The government was still operational and I hadn't yet seen Miley Cyrus' tongue staring at me all over the internet. Fun times.

Speaking of my kid, here he is all grown up...

He adores vacuuming. Like more than you could possibly understand.

So I've been on the prowl for cheap (or free, I'll definitely take free) fall/holiday decorating ideas that also don't take a whole lot of time. 

Then today my husband was entertaining Harrison with a dryer sheet and a yard stick--as one does--and I suddenly realized that used dryer sheets would make perfect little ghosts. And what's better than a ghost garland for your mantle for Halloween? Nothing, that's what.

If you're anything like me you have a little bin on your dryer to collect all of the lint and dryer sheets and other random bits so you don't have to run to the trash can every time. So I dug through ours and pulled out all of the old dryer sheets I could find. Bonus points for recycling and whatnot.

The process is really simple, but I documented it with a series of grainy iPhone photos, which I'm sure you'll enjoy. The compromise in photo quality is seriously the only way this was going to get posted. Can you say nofreetime? I mean I have a toddler, you guys.

You will need:
Dryer sheets, yard or thread, and scissors. And like 10 or 15 minutes. Shortest materials list ever.


To start, cut a piece of yarn or string for each dryer sheet 4 or 5 inches long and set aside. Pinch the dryer sheet in the middle, then cup it in your hand and mess with it until you get the look you want. Then pinch at the base of the "head" and tie a yarn piece tightly around the sheet, creating a knot.

Cut off the excess yarn and repeat with your remaining dryer sheets. Soon you'll have a plethora of ghosties!

To create the garland, measure out the length of yarn you need for your mantle/window/staircase etc, adding an inch or two to account for the amount you'll be using to tie around the ghosts. I started tying the ghosts about 8 inches in from the end and spaced the ghosts roughly 10 inches apart, just eyeballing it. To keep the free end of the string going in the right direction, put the string in front of the ghost, instead of behind, then wrap the free end around the back of the head (like a scarf) before tying it--just once--and moving on to the next ghost. It's semi-less confusing in the photos below, but overall a simple concept.

Then hang it up and voila! Halloween decoration!

There's nothing like a revelation about a dryer sheet to get you back in the game, amiright?

Happy Halloween Harry!

Imagine with me, for a moment, that it is not November 5th. It is instead October 31st and a post about Halloween is still relevant, mmk?

I do have to post a disclaimer here that if you are not a fan of Harry Potter you might want to skip this one. Just go along your merry way and come back some other time. Though you will miss a lot of pictures of a ridiculously cute baby. Just sayin'.

So from the time Harrison was about a month old, I knew that I was going to dress him up as Harry Potter for Halloween. His hair just kept getting longer and longer and at the time it was still pretty dark. His name was Harrison, which could be shortened to Harry (though we're not exactly encouraging that nickname...a name like "Hairy Combs" probably earns you a lot of time in a locker). Also Harry Potter is kind of my jam. It was obviously meant to be.

So despite the fact that he's now pretty much blonde, I was determined to make it happen, cap'n! And make it happen I did.

How freakin cute is that. I know. I'm biased. But look how glorious those glasses are. They make me giggle every time I see them. We had a bit of a snag the first time he wore them because they wouldn't stay on and he didn't like us constantly readjusting them, but then I wrapped a pipe cleaner around the back and voila! Instant head piece and Harrison was like "okay, whatever." I'm only about 4% convinced they messed up his eyesight. So worth it.

He had a scar at one point but he kept sweating it off. Ah, well. Remember, we're pretending.

He kept trying to eat the wand and managed to get it in his mouth a couple of times, which is when I started worrying that I was going to end up poisoning my kid with 77¢ craft paint.

Speaking of the costume...It's about to get real nerdy up in here. His costume was largely a handmade effort, with a couple of cheap (or shall I say "inexpensive" to sound more distinguished?) things thrown in the mix.

The components:
1. Under clothes
2. Hogwarts robes
3. Gryffindor scarf
4. Gryffindor tie
5. Glasses
6. Wand

Under his "robes" he wore black pants (Walmart, like $4) and a collared white onesie (already on hand), to which I safety pinned the tie. I made the tie and scarf out of super cheap inexpensive broadcloth (as in $3.48 total) that I got at Hobby Lobby in red and yellow (1/2 yard of each). I got really lazy and instead of sewing everything together, I hot glued it instead. We keep it classy up in here. I used this tutorial for the scarf (except for, you know, the sewing part) and just eyeballed the tie. For his robes I snagged a shirt?thing? from Goodwill for a couple of bucks that was the perfect height. It was kind of a slinky material and felt robe-esque. I just cut the arms to length, cut it up the middle in the back (which conveniently had a little velco enclosure at the top, so it became the front), and taped a Hogwarts "patch" I printed off on the left chest area. Like I said: classy :D

As for the wand - it's paper. And hot glue. And paint. Yup. I came upon this tutorial and thought it was brilliant - and pretty much free, which I'm always a fan of. I ended up making three wands, one for each of us.
 

 Because we're all nerds :)

How was your Halloween?