Packing Tape Ghost Tutorial: Spooky DIY Halloween Decoration

Packing Tape Ghost Tutorial: Spooky DIY Halloween Decoration

This DIY packing tape ghost will make the perfect addition to your front yard decorations for Halloween. Store bought decor can add up quickly, so this quick DIY packing tape ghost will cut down your cost for decorations as many of the materials can be found around your house. Read on for the full step-by-step process for this spooky DIY project!

Materials:
  • Packing tape
  • Gift wrapping tape
  • Scissors
  • Box cutting knife
  • Plastic Tarp
  • Three broomsticks or something similar and round for easy cutting
  • Wire
  • Battery operated holiday lights or glow sticks
  • Styrofoam head
  • Rubber gloves
  • Model or mannequin in full-length shirt
Step 1: Taping the Torso & Arms

Place the broomstick on your model’s back and start wrapping the packing tape around the person’s torso area- make sure not to get it too tight.  Use enough tape that it will keep its form once you remove the model.  Tip: Create a few extra tape layers on the broomstick for support.

Additionally, place a broomstick on the back of one arm of your model start wrapping the arm and upper body to the collarbone area- DO NOT cover the neck with tape leave this for your foam head.
First create arm and torso for your packing tape ghost.Once the arm and body tape layers are complete, cut up the back of the broom on the persons back and the arm.

Pull your person out of the tape- you should have your first arm and torso. Pull the cut areas back in and connect with a few strips of tape.

Step 2- Securing Torso and Arms

Attach the second arm to the torso.Next tape your second arm, again with stick on the back of the arm.  Cut out once done.  Also, fit your 2nd arm into the torso and use the packing tape to connect.

Step 3- Taping the Head

Wrap packing tape around mannequin head.

Now we’ll start on the head. Grab your foam head and begin to wrap in packing tape, avoiding the detailed areas like ears, nose, mouth, and eyes.
Taple all the small details of the mannequin head

Once you have all the areas covered, grab the wrapping tape and work on covering the detailed areas.  Be sure to use the tape to mold all the details such as the eyes. Finally, put a little packing tape around the edges of the wrapping tape areas for extra support.
Cut part of the tape head to peel it off the mannequin

Cut up the back of your head, from the back of the neck to where the hairline would start on the forehead, with a box cutting knife.

Step 4- Attaching the Head

Remove mannequin head from tape.

Once you remove the foam head, make sure all your details, eyes, ears, etc. are correctly formed and start taping up the area where you previously cut using a few strips of packing tape.
Attach the head onto the packing tape ghost body.

Following this, connect the head with your packing tape ghost torso with more packing tape to make secure.

Step 5- Complete the Ghost Body

Use a plastic tarp to make a skirt for your packing tape ghost

Now you can make legs if you can find someone patient enough for more modeling, or you can give your ghost a quick plastic skirt. To create a skirt, cut your plastic tarp to 3 feet wide strips, start gathering the plastic and taping to the inside of your torso.  Keep doing this until all sides of the body has a plastic skirt.
Use plastic gloves to make hands for your ghost

Now we want to add hands to our ghost, we used rubber gloves, but you could also use the same plastic to make flowing hands much like the skirt.  We added a bit of air to the gloves to give them form, tied a knot and taped them to the inside of the arms.

Step 6- Displaying the Ghost

Attach wire to head of ghost for hanging.

Next, we need to attach a wire hanger to the ghost so we can hang it from a tree. With your scissors make a small slit in the top of the ghosts head. Cut off 1’ of wire, twist a loop in it and feed it up into your ghost body. The twisted section will act as a knot on the inside of your ghost, so the wire doesn’t slip through. Make another loop from the cable that has come out of the ghosts head.  Now you are ready to hang your ghost from the tree.
Hang your packing tape ghost from a tree branch

Use an additional piece of wire to hang from a tree branch.
Add lights to your ghost to make it glow at night

Lastly, add lights to your ghost- we just taped them inside the packing tape ghost with our wrapping tape. It’s best to do this at night so you can see how it looks while illuminated. You can use Christmas lights or glow sticks for this!

This simple DIY packing tape ghost is sure to impress all the trick-or-treaters on your block! In addition, this eerie ghost decoration will also last many years thanks to the layers of packing tape.

Happy Halloween from all of us at Wet & Forget!

For more fall DIY projects, check out our blog post here.