Cheesecloth Ghost - Dog Edition!

This is such an easy and fun ghost any dog lover can make for their Halloween decor.

What you'll need:

Aleene's Fabric Stiffener - 1 bottle

Aleene's Tacky Glue

Cheesecloth - 6 yard bag

Plastic Wrap

Recycled items (Water bottles, cans, plastic bins - basically anything you can find to help shape your masterpiece!)

Buttons or Googly eyes

Brown Paper Bag material

Masking Tape

Craft Tub (large enough for mixing)

Gloves

Instructions:

Follow the instructions in the Step-by-Step Photo Collage from Aleene's for most of this project. 

You can see the set up of recycled items and balloon in the third photo above for the ghost.  I had a heck of a time trying to find items that looked like ears and a slanted dog face.  Once I started playing around with the brown paper bag material, I realized it was perfect for the job!  

Shape your dog head onto the top of your recycled body piece (I used a large plastic chex mix container).  Hold everything in place with masking tape as you go.

After you are happy with the shape of your dog head, cover it in plastic wrap as you don't want the cheesecloth to soak into your masterpiece and ruin it.  Make sure the plastic wrap is on tight and will not affect the shape of the ears, nose, etc. that you've created.

Now it's time to do the last two steps in Aleene's photo collage.  Dump the entire bottle of Stiffener into your mixing tub.  Then fill the stiffener bottle with water and dump that in too (you should have equal parts Stiffener and water).  Mix well.  Dip the cheesecloth in until it's covered and then wring out the excess glue/water.  Gently pull the cheesecloth apart so it's a nice open piece of fabric.  Then lay it over your masterpiece making sure all 4 sides are covered.  You will have enough cheesecloth to drape your layers 4-5 times.  Let sit overnight.

Once the cheesecloth has stiffened, your ghost dog will stand up on its own without anything underneath!  Add some eyes using buttons or googly eyes with some Tacky Glue and voila!  Set it on the fireplace mantle or somewhere it's sure to get noticed.

Sebastian looks a little concerned about this ghost, but t I know he wont lose any sleep over it.

XOXOXOXOXO,

Erika and Sebastian