Ghost Halloween Paper Chain Countdown

My girls love making paper chain countdowns and they love Halloween. So, this year I came up with this adorable "Ghost Halloween Countdown". My favorite part is that the girls drew their own ghosts which made their countdowns more meaningful. So, here is a step by step tutorial on how to make your own "Ghost Halloween Countdown". Don't worry, it's not to late. We just made ours a couple of days ago. Here is a photo of the materials we used to make our countdowns. I forgot to include clear scotch tape and a stapler in the photo. First we sketched out our ghosts onto 12 x 12 white cardstock paper. You will want a little bit sturdier paper or the weight of the chains can tear them from your ghost (a tip I learned last year once both my preschool classes made witch countdowns using construction paper). If you have younger children you could draw the ghost for them.

Once you have sketched your ghost, now it is time to cut it out. Make sure if you have younger children they are supervised while using scissors. Don't you love how different the 3 ghosts turned out. Next we traced ghost eyes onto construction paper using a white crayon. After we cut our eyes out we glued them onto our ghost. These next two steps could be skipped, or you could substitute the products used with glue and glitter. In trying to use up some of my crafting/scrapbooking products I had the girls use a glue I have in my stash made by Stampin Up! called, Crystal Effects. The girls used a paintbrush to "paint" the glue onto their ghost. The next step was we took a shimmery fine glitter called, Stampin Glitter-Dazzling Diamonds, from Stampin Up!, to dust all over our ghosts. These pictures don't do the glitter justice because it is so sparkly. Of course we ended up with shimmery glitter in our hair, on our faces, on our counter top, etc. Next, using my paper trimmer (yes, I still use a very basic one), I cut two inch white strips of paper for the paper chains. We then taped the paper chains together. You could also staple them if you would like. Last but not least I stapled the paper chains to the girls ghosts, and then attached a piece of yarn to the top to hang the ghosts up. Now every morning one of the first things the girls do is tear of one of the chains on their Ghost Halloween Countdowns. This is a wonderful project for kids that continually ask, "How many days until Halloween?" Here is a picture of the Witch Halloween Countdowns we did last year. They were super cute too and were inspired by Make and Takes Witch Countdowns.
Hope you enjoyed this tutorial and Happy Halloween!