Kid Arts and Craft: Ghost and Pumpkin Jugs for Halloween

I had a bunch of milk jugs that I was saving to craft with but I wasn't sure what I was going to do with them.  I did see a craft to make a sandwich holder from the bottom of the milk jug in my All You Magazine.  If you were just inspired or confused, here is a link so that you can make your own.  Of course, I am not sure why that meant that I was keeping every container that came into the house but I had a huge collect when it came time to recycle and I decided that I was going to make ghost jugs for the front porch for Halloween.  They are simple and free but provide great decoration that can be recycled after the holiday.  If you want to see some inspiration, check these websites:

Ghost Jugs

Orange Jack o' Lantern Jugs

Jack o' Lantern Jugs

I went searching on the computer to find some different ideas and I liked the ghosts the best because they seemed the easiest.

First step was to remove all the labels from the milk jugs which was easier said then done.  I pulled them off and then scrubbed them under hot water but they weren't coming totally off.  The great news is that they don't have to be totally off because they are on the back side of the ghost as long as you get one without two stickers.  This one only had a little sticker left.

The second step was cleaning the inside so I poured a mixture of water and bleach inside just to make sure that everything was cleaned and sanitized.  They were really hard to dry out so I made sure to keep the top on while we were decorating them. See how this side doesn't have any stickers.

Then we decorated the jugs.  I just used a sharpie and colored in the areas that I drew.

Here were three of them but my son was still thinking about the last one that he wanted to make when it was time to cut the holes.

Then, my husband cut the holes in the back and dried out the inside.  My husband is a neat freak so he used a compass to get a perfect circle and cut it with his extra sharp utility knife.  Look as those holes:

Don't worry about yours being so neat because they are in the back of the ghost and no one but you will see them.  After they were cut and cleaned, I had to feed the lights into the back until they fill the milk jug.  I wasn't really great at it but I used one strand for two jugs.  Here is what the wires look like:

I put two on either side of the front porch by the posts.  These are the ones that I did.

And here are the ones that my son made.

We also made two pumpkin jugs.  I mixed up orange paint and white glue (because I saw it on the internet and everything on the internet is true...well, it didn't work out great for painting)

We painted them but it took a little while to dry so we decorated and cut the holes the next day.

Those went on the porch after my husband cut holes in them and I didn't get the lights in them so they blew away.  Oops!!!  Don't let Daddy in on the craft if you don't give good directions but it teaches a lesson to everyone.  Make sure that you get lights in them because otherwise they are really lightweight and you might find them at the end of the driveway when you get home.  They got chipped up and a little messy but here is what they look like with most of the damage being on the back side.  We used stickers instead of markers which were in one of our Halloween books.

We had a ton of fun and these got to sit outside to decorate our house.  I don't know if I would try the pumpkins again unless I had a better paint recipe but I would do the ghosts every year!!!  I hope that you try it too.  If you don't have any milk jugs for this year, make sure you set aside a few for next year because it is super fun.  I might have had just as much fun as my son did and we both wanted to do more but I didn't want the front porch to look like a recycling center.  Did you make any ghosts or pumpkins this year?

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