Ok, I swear I am not obsessed with creating table settings, this one just kind of happened.

This little table craft I created when trying to create festive covers for everyday solar outdoor lights to hang outside our front door for Halloween.

I had a friend coming into town, and I thought, well, I have made so many, why not make them into place card holders for my mother’s tiny table, now in our dining area.

I get it, honestly, in my DNA from my mother. Each year, the house was decorated to the nines inside and out.

Every year, the month of October was spent making our costumes and new decorations to add to the overwhelming homemade decorations that she had made and kept over the years.

While my generation doesn’t want a whole section of the attic full of bins of decorations, I still want to create small and simple crafts that can be stored taking up little space, or can even be discarded after a season or two.

These ghosties can easily be stored in a container the size of a shoebox for next year and are made of inexpensive materials.

More storytelling later, see the instructions below on how to make your own little hosty ghosties for your Halloween tablescape.

Hosty Ghosties and Witchy Hats

CRAFT: HOSTY GHOSTIES & WITCHY HATS

Materials:

* Paper Egg Cartons

* Good Pair of Scissors

* White Acrylic Paint

* Black Acrylic Paint

* Paint Brushes

* Halloween Colored Ribbon

* A kitchen fork

* Hot Glue Gun

* Hot Glue Sticks

* Copper Wire

* Needle-nose pliers and wire cutters

* Cardstock or other stiff paper

* Sharpie marker

Optional:

* Gloves to keep the paint off your hands, I just use my kitchen disposable gloves for food prep

* Star hole punch

Instructions:

Cut Out the Cones:Begin by cutting cone shapes from a paper egg carton.

* For witch hats, tear and fan out the bottom edge of the cone slightly to give it that worn, floppy “old hat” look.

* For ghosts, leave the cone shape as is so they remain tall and simple.

Set Up for Painting:Use the lid section of the egg carton as a stand to hold the cones upright while painting.Paint the outside of each cone using white acrylic for ghosts and black acrylic for witch hats.Be sure to paint about one inch inside the underside of each cone so that if you hang them on a string of lights, the unpainted paper won’t show.

Let Them Dry & Make the Bows:While the paint dries, make small bows using Halloween ribbon and the fork method (see the tutorial link from Red Ted Art).These bows will be used to decorate both the ghosts and witch hats.

Add Optional Star Cutouts (for Witch Hats):Once the black paint is completely dry, use a star-shaped hole punch to make a few small openings in each hat.These stars will allow light from the LED strand to shine through. (The hole punch I used can be found [here].)

I warmed up the faithful hot glue gun and started on the witches’ hats, adding complementary combinations of ribbon and bows to each hat.

Decorate the Witch Hats:

* Warm up your hot glue gun.

* Apply a thin line of glue around the rim of the hat.

* Attach a ribbon around the base, trimming it to fit.

* Glue a contrasting bow over the ribbon’s seam to finish the look.

Decorate the Ghosts:

* Use a black Sharpie (or paint) to draw fun or spooky faces on each ghost.

* Take half of your leftover bows and cut the ends short, then hot-glue them on the back to create small bow ties.

* Attach bows to your ghosts—on the side of the head for girl ghosts and under the “chin” for boy ghosts.

I then took half of the remaining bows and cut and hot-glued the ends to the back, making them look more like bow ties.

I then adhered the bows to both the girl and the boy ghosts. A side hair bow location for the girls and a bowtie for the boys.

Place Card Holders From Ghosties & Witchy Hats

* Cut the Wire:Use copper wire and cut a piece about 1 inch long.

* Prepare the Cone:Using a small punch or awl, make two small holes near the top of the cone—one on each side, directly across from each other.

* Form the Paper Slot:

* Straighten your wire.

* With needle-nose pliers, curl the center of the wire two full turns to create a small circular loop.

* Gently pinch the loop together so it forms a narrow slot—this is where the place card or paper strip will sit.

* Attach the Wire:Bend each end of the wire outward slightly, then insert each end into the holes you made on the sides of the cone. Adjust as needed so the loop stands centered on top.

How to style your Little Spookies

Cut small strips of paper and write your guest’s name on them, and place them at the top of the place holder. I chose to match the girl ghosts with my girl guests, etc, but you certainly don’t have to!

You can either pop them over an LED light string or just place them around your space for decoration.

If you find this craft instruction interesting, I hope you will follow me for more camp recipes, camp and seasonal crafts, and adventure stories here at Rambler and Range. Happy Spooky Season!

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