Halloween is less than a week away! This is the time for costumes, sugary food, and spooky décor. While I am not decorating my apartment this year, I am helping to decorate my boss’ office.
You see, there is a little challenge going on between the directors at work. Each of them is decorating their office in a “Haunted Offices” theme. Once decorated, all employees will get a chance to go through each of the offices as if it were a haunted mansion or haunted hayride sort of thing. Then, employees will vote for the scariest office by donating a toonie to a charity box outside said office. The one with the most toonies is the winner!
But winning will not be easy. With so many people, the offices will have to have plenty of scares. For my boss’ office we plan on giant spiders, blood lighting, a guessing game with a scary surprise, and of course something that jumps out: a ghost with bloody eyes.
This last one is what I was put in charge of handling. I had to make a ghost decoration with bloody eyes that can be strung up on the door frame. The idea is that when the door is opened the ghost falls in front of someone’s face. A jump scare if you will.
Now, most times people make these ghosts with just basic black eyes and maybe a yawn-like mouth. But to me, that is too cartoony to be scary. So I took it a step further and made the ghost’s eyes bloody. If you like the look of the ghost, here is a tutorial to help you make your own!
Ghost Decoration with Bloody Eyes
First find your materials and tools. You will need
- 3-6 sheets of 50cm X 100cm fabric (either cheese cloth, gauze, or tulle, I used tulle)
- 6” foam ball
- 6” piece of string
- Small piece of cardboard
- 2 tacks
- 1 red and 1 black permanent marker
- Scissors
Second, lay out your fabric. Cut the fabric to 50cm X 100cm if not already done. Then lay one sheet of fabric flat on your workstation. Layer the next piece of fabric so that it lies perpendicular to the first layer, you should get a look like below where one layer sticks out to the sides and the other up/down. For the third piece, fold it in half then place in the cross section of the first two pieces so that the center of the fabric layers is now four layers thick. Repeat pattern with additional sheets. Basically, the more sheets of fabric, the more “body” to your ghost. But don’t put too many because that will ruin the transparent look.
Now it is time to add your foam ball. Place it on top of your fabric layers, directly in the center of the entire pattern. Work your hands under the fabric towards the ball being sure to keep the ball centered. Once you gather the fabric, wrap it over the ball and grip it so the ball cannot move (basically strangle the ghost, haha). Have someone take the string and tie it near your hand in order to keep the ball and fabric in place. Congratulation, you just formed the head of your ghost!
Of course it is no fun if your ghost has no facial features, so let’s add some! Simply cut your desired eye or mouth shapes out of cardboard. I chose to make bloody eyes and no mouth. I practiced on a spare piece of cardboard first and then traced the design I liked for the final eyes. For blood red eyes take a red marker and colour in your cardboard cut-out.
Now take two tacks, the simple gold kind use on cork boards, and use a permanent marker to “paint” the tops black. These will become the pupils but will also hold your eye cut-outs in place. Simply line up where you would like the eyes to go and push the tack into the foam head.
And there you have it. A simple but scary ghost decoration with bloody eyes.
What do you think? Will my coworkers get a scare when this pops out as they open a door?
