House of Hawthornes

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Halloween Ghosts Made From Gourds

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Tutorial for Halloween ghosts made from gourds. Super quick and easy fall craft idea, including step by step instructions.

Tutorial for making these fun Halloween ghosts made from gourds. Super quick and easy to make for your fall home decor.
I wanted something Halloween-ish yet not too scary for my back porch this year, so I decided to make some spooky Halloween ghosts made from gourds.

And since they’re not THAT spooky, they’d make a fun craft to include the kids on. (Just bring the kids in on the last part of the tutorial though, the cleaning part is not super duper kid-friendly as you’ll see in my instructions).

Tutorial for making these fun Halloween ghosts made from gourds. Super quick and easy to make for your fall home decor.

How To Make Halloween Ghosts Made From Gourds

Supplies:

  • Dried Gourds
  • White Spray Paint
  • Black Craft paint
  • Small Craft Paintbrush
  • Cheesecloth

Instructions:

How To Clean Gourds –

    • If your gourds have not been previously cleaned when you buy them they will have dirty, moldy, crusty stuff on the skin. If your gourds are cleaned for you already, skip down to the To Make Ghosts steps.

Tutorial for making these fun Halloween ghosts made from gourds. Super quick and easy to make for your fall home decor.
Tutorial for making these fun Halloween ghosts made from gourds. Super quick and easy to make for your fall home decor.

    • To remove the crust, soak your gourds for two hours in a bucket of water with a splash of dish detergent and a dash of bleach. This will soften the crusty exterior and keep the mold and dirt from becoming airborne.*

Tutorial for making these fun Halloween ghosts made from gourds. Super quick and easy to make for your fall home decor.

    • After soaking, you should be able to remove the outer crust with a kitchen scrub pad. Throw the scrub pad away when you are done with this step, because it’s going to be nasty.

Tutorial for making these fun Halloween ghosts made from gourds. Super quick and easy to make for your fall home decor.

  • Allow the gourds to air dry.

How To Make Ghosts From Gourds –

    • Spray paint the gourds white. I hang mine from tree branches with twine to make it easier to spray the whole gourd at one time.
    • After the spray paint has dried thoroughly, paint the faces on with black craft paint. Get creative with your faces.

Tutorial for making these fun Halloween ghosts made from gourds. Super quick and easy to make for your fall home decor.

    • Cut a length of cheesecloth and place over the top and your “ghost” is complete.

Tutorial for making these fun Halloween ghosts made from gourds. Super quick and easy to make for your fall home decor.
Tutorial for making these fun Halloween ghosts made from gourds. Super quick and easy to make for your fall home decor.

*It is recommended to use a respirator over your mouth and nose so as to limit your exposure to the mold. I personally have not used one, but I’m not always the sharpest tool in the pumpkin shed. If you want to include the kids in on the fun, I would definitely leave that step to the grownups though and maybe have them start off with the already spray painted gourds.

Here’s a couple of the faces I created.

Tutorial for making these fun Halloween ghosts made from gourds. Super quick and easy to make for your fall home decor.
Tutorial for making these fun Halloween ghosts made from gourds. Super quick and easy to make for your fall home decor.
Tutorial for making these fun Halloween ghosts made from gourds. Super quick and easy to make for your fall home decor.

A few years ago, I made some smaller gourd ghosts using Chinese bottle gourds. I think the little guys look a little more like the real thing???

Tutorial for making these fun Halloween ghosts made from gourds. Super quick and easy to make for your fall home decor.

Because if there is one thing I’m an expert on, it’s ghosts.

(This post contains some affiliate links for your convenience. You can read my full disclosure policy here.)

Where To Buy Gourds

I’ve had people ask where they can find dried gourds online. I normally buy mine at a local farm market, but I have seen quite a few for sale on Etsy. For instance Front Porch Gourds has a very nice selection of them (I’ve never personally bought from them, but they do have a five star rating on etsy).

Types Of Gourds To Use For Your Painted Gourds

  • Chinese bottle gourds (the small guys)
  • Martin gourds (the larger round-ish ones)
  • Long handled dipper gourds (the tall, thin scary dudes)
Tutorial for making these fun Halloween ghosts made from gourds. Super quick and easy to make for your fall home decor.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  4. Oh how cute….in a spooky way of course! I’ve been visiting your blog for a while now and realized how rude I’ve been never leaving a comment. Sorry about that. I really enjoy your sense of humor your creativity and you outlook on things. Thanks for brightening up my day!

    Reply

  5. I like both of your ghosts. They don’t all look alike, you know.
    We have ghosts in and out of our house. They just want to know what’s going on, and occasionally borrow the cheese cutter.

    Reply

  7. These are what we call “stinkin’ cute”. Now I have to go buy gourds. We lived in a haunted house when I was in middle school. Nothing awful, we just heard her walking around. We always called her “Aunt Jane”, which is weird, because I never had an Aunt Jane.

    Reply

  10. Oh I love these guys! Big ones and the little ones… and the real ones! But that is probably only b/c I haven’t lived with any real ones. Love my ghost shows on TV. I’ll take livin’ with those teeny barn dwellers any day. 🙂

    Reply

  11. When I have time I will write and tell you about our experiences….I just don’t want to do it here and have people think I am even crazier than they already think I am- lol

    LOVE your cute little ghosts. xo Diana

    Reply

  13. Oh, yes, we’ve got ghosts ‘a plenty at 911! Some say it’s just the noise our steam heating system makes, but I know it’s ghosts.

    I like your little guys, too. They look right at home in the barn. Do they boo or moo?

    Reply

  15. You win the prize for cutest ghosts! (have no idea what the prize is though) I have never lived in a haunted house–though the paranormal interests and scares me. I am guessing I am not a sensitive though I have always wondered if Gage is (my son).I always make sure I don’t “get a bad feeling” when I am buying something from a thrift store. I only want to bring home good energy!

    Reply

  26. These are adorable!! However growing your own gourds is easy peasy and therapeutic too! They only need some wire or something to vine up. Tons of sunshine and water and done!!

    Reply

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