Thrifted Cute Ghost Makeover

This Thrifted Wood Ghost was cute when I bought him, but once I made him over with some cutesy glasses he went from cute to BOO-tiful. DIY Halloween decor at it’s finest!

Standing wood ghost from a thrift store with an orange pumpkin.

This is your reminder that if you see something cute-ish at the thrift store, but you don’t absolutely love it, then grab it anyway! Because you can make it over to be something even more amazing.

I mean, this ghost really was cute when I first got him. But I knew right away that he wasn’t gonna stay as is. In fact, HE became a SHE! No surgery required LOL!

Major GLOW UP here!

Cute thrifted wood standing ghost makeover with a black and white polka dot pumpkin, a burlap banner that says "BOO", black eyeglasses, and an orange and black fabric bow.

I thought about him being almost like a wood craft kit…but cheaper! ($1.95)

I got this gorgeous Halloween fabric at JoAnns Fabrics, and it made for the absolute perfect bows for this project.

I am not huge fan of the color orange, but this fabric is quickly changing my mind this Halloween season.

Since I don’t normally love orange, I made a similar BOO Banner Ghost last year that was Rainbow theme. It kind of reminds me of this cutie since she was holding a Boo Banner as well. I guess you can say my own project inspired this one.

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Supplies Needed to Makeover a Cute Thrifted Wood Ghost

Thrifted Wood Ghost
Black and white polka dot fabric
Wood eyeglasses
Burlap
Twine
Small black button
Wood letter B-O-O
Small pumpkin
Coordinating Black and Orange Fabric and ribbon
Paint: White, Black
Kilz Dark Wax
Spouncer
Mod Podge
Hot glue gun

How to Makeover a cute Thrifted Wood Ghost

I made over this Thrifted Cute Ghost on video. So you can WATCH the tutorial by clicking below.

Amanda holding the completed project . a Facebook Live thumbnail

Watch the Video HERE

The ghost was already white, but since I wanted to paint over the current face to redo it, I painted another coat of white over the entire thing. Here is the back, before I did a second coat.

The back of the thrifted wood ghost painted all white.

When I ripped the pumpkin and bowtie off, it pulled up some of the MDF, so I decided to turn it around and make the front be the back.

I like my crafts old and grungy so I used my Kilz Dark Wax and “antiqued” all around the edges of the wood ghost using a finger dauber.

The ghost edges all grunged up with Kilz dark wax.

For her face, I used a spouncer to make large round black eyes, and the end of a paint brush to put a dot of white inside.

I painted the wood eyeglasses black, and glued them to the ghosts face.

For extra cuteness, I made a simple “hair bow” with some pretty argyle fabric, a twine shoestring bow, and a small black button in the center.

Black eyeglasses on the wood ghost and an orange and black bow in her hair.

For the BOO banner, I cut 1 perfect triangle out of cardstock, and then used that as a template to cut the 3 triangles out of burlap. I coated the back with Mod Podge to make them stiff and prevent them from fraying.

Next, I painted the one inch wood letters B-O-O orange, and glued them to the burlap pendants.

Then, I glued the burlap pendants to a long piece of twine and attached the banner from arm to arm by gluing the twine around the “arms” to the back.

The ghost holding a burlap banner that says "BOO" in orange letters.

To decorate the pumpkin, I first pulled it off of the ghost (I heated the glue up with my heat gun first, to loosen it up). Then I traced it onto a piece of black and white polka dot fabric, cut it out, and decoupaged it to the pumpkin using Mod Podge.

For the stem, I wrapped it in twine and secured with hot glue.

Of course I had to make a mini fabric bow for the pumpkin stem using my Bowdabra, but you could totally make a bow without that. I used a combination of fabric and ribbon, and glued a mini black button to the center as an embellishment.

A pumpkin that is black and white polka dots along with an orange and black bow at the top and a wine stem.

To finish it off I glued a small resin pumpkin to the bottom left on the base of the ghost, because I just felt like it needed a lil’ somethin’ somethin’ there.

I think this lil’ ghosts name should be Paisley. Paisley got a MAJOR glow up from her original thrift store version!

She also coordinates perfectly with the Foam Cone Witch Hat that we made in my exclusive subscription group, The CRafterparty!

You can go HERE for deets on being apart of this amazing group of crafty women, and get the tutorial for this Witch Hat too.

The completed thrifted ghost all made over next to a coordinating witches hat.

Are you going to makeover a thrifted ghost? Or thrifted ANYTHING for that matter? If you do, I’d love to see it! Pop on over to our free Craftspiration Facebook group, and join in on the fun by posting a pic of your Tiered Trays, DIY’s and crafts. I just love to see all your creative and crafty creations.

If you’ve got a million projects on your crafting ‘to-do’ list like I do, than you need my FREE Craft Project Planner so you can plan to make *all the things*! When you sign up for the craft planner, I’ll also send you lot’s of fun, easy, and budget friendly ideas for you to fill it up with!