Fence Wood Ghosts

While going down the Pinterest rabbit hole I stumbled upon some wooden ghosts. I recently bought myself a scroll saw so I knew I could recreate them! Come along with me and Ill show you step by step how I did it.

If you have some old fence boards laying around this project is perfect to use them up. I started by drawing on the wood the shape of the head that I wanted as well as the eyes and mouth. 

I tried to make various sizes because I wasnt sure if I was going to connect them all together or just a few. I decided not to but you definately could do that if you wanted to display them on your porch or in your yard. 

After I drew my lines I began to cut their heads out with my scroll saw. I found it easier to use a spiral blade. 

Next, I worked on the eyes and mouths. Drill a small starter hole close to your line so you can insert your blade to make the cuts. Unhook your blade and feed it through your starter hole. Reattach your blade and fix your tension.

You can see here where I started cutting out the eyes by beginning at the starter hole and going around.

Here they are after they have all been cut. 

I sanded down each board with 220 grit sand paper on my orbital sander.

I was sure to sand the sides and sanded a rounded edge all the way around the corner of each ghost.

After that I used my dremel to sand around the eyes and mouth. I added my sanding attachment for this. 

I went around each ghost and also sanded a rounded edge on the eyes and mouth also. You could manually sand these parts ai just figured it would be faster with the dremel. 

After sanding wipe the dust off. Now its time for some stain. I used various colors for each ghost since I wanted a variety. I used Minwax stains in the colors Early American, English Chestnut, and Golden Oak. 

Using a micrifiber cloth I stained each ghost front and back. Dont forget to stain the insides of the eyes and mouths. 

I decided they need a little more detail so I found some muslin fabric and ripped some strips off. The strips were about 1 1/2 inches. I wanted a tattered look. I coffee stained the strios with some left over coffee and hung them to dry.

Once they were dry I took my  stamp set from Iron Orchid Design called Letterpress and picked out the word "boo."

I layed out the letters how I wanted them to make sure they werent too wide for the fabric. 

Next I used my thin mount to pick up the letters. Your stamp will stick to these thin mount acrylic pieces.

Load your stamp with black ink. I used Archival black permanet in. You can buy this at any craft store. I only had 1 letter 'O' so I made sure to leave room to add it after I stamped the first portion.

Place your stamp on the fabric pressing down slighly over the letters to make a good impression. 

I went back and added my last letter 'O.'

Then I tied the strip around what Ill call the neck of the ghost. Trim off the excess fabric at the bottom.

And there you have it! These would be great porch leaners for Halloween and the fall season. The tallest ghost is 3ft. And the shortest ghost measures at 26.5 inches.