Mod Podge Stiffy Bats and Ghosts

Get ready to give your Halloween decor a charming and crafty upgrade! This project from Mod Podge introduces a fun and hands-on way to bring whimsical bats and ghosts to life using fabric stiffener, cheesecloth, wooden bits, and simple household supplies. Whether you’re decorating a classroom, your living room, or setting up a spook-tacular display, this easy-to-follow guide walks you through making cute, stiffened creatures that are full of personality and seasonal spirit.

What you will need

Other things you'll need:

For Bats:

Black and white ribbon
Small clothespins
Computer printout of bat
Large wooden balls
Black fabric
Tacky Glue
Fabric pins
Paper plate
Medium wooden balls
Scissors
Black Glitter

For Ghosts:

Cheesecloth
Paper plate
Thick Wire
3/8" drill bit
Needle nose pliers
Clingwrap
5" 3/8" dowels
Scrap piece of wood
Hot glue
Wire cutters
Small clothespins
1 ½" round wooden balls
Drill
Tacky Glue

Instructions: Bats

To make the bat, using a desired printout from anywhere online, pin the pattern to the fabric and cut out shape.
Cover the two dowels in clingwrap. Place the dowel onto clingwrap.
Place the cutout bat onto paper plate and saturate with Stiffy. Make sure both sides of bat are completely saturated with Stiffy.
Place the bat on top of the dowels so that the wings are going across the dowels and the bats body is flat on surface in between dowels. Allow the bats to dry.
Remove bats from clingwrap. Brush Mod Podge Gloss onto the body of the bat and add black glitter.
Glue the clothespins to the back of the bats with Aleene’s Tacky Glue if you would like to create garland with bats.

Instructions: Ghosts

Drill a 3/8” hole into the scrap wood. Cut off an 8” piece of wire. Using the needle nose pliers, bend the ends of the wire into circles. This will be the ghosts hands. Wrap the wire around the dowel about a third of the way up. Make sure the wire is wrapped tight enough to stay in place. Bend wire to make bent arms of the ghost. Glue the wooden ball to the top of the dowel where the ghosts head will be. Glue the ghost armature into the hole previously drilled.
Place clingwrap onto the armature.
Cut off a 12” piece of the cheesecloth. Place it onto plate and saturate with the Stiffy. Squeeze cheesecloth to make sure it is completely covered. Spread cheesecloth out and place it on top of the armature. Make sure all parts of the armature is covered in clingwrap to prevent the cheesecloth from sticking to armature with the time comes to remove.
Form the cheesecloth to wire and wooden ball. Allow ghost to dry completely. To speed up drying time, place a fan in front of ghost.
Once dry, remove from armature and paint ghost face in Licorice.
Use Aleene’s glue to attach the clothespin to back of the ghost.

Thanks to our friends at Plaid for this project, originally published at: https://plaidonline.com/inspire-and-create/project/mod-podge-stiffy-bats-and-ghosts