My kids and I are having so much fun decorating for Halloween. We’re crafting and baking like crazy and I am amazed how many free crafts I can find out there to make. This one was the best because it was totally free. Yep, free!
We go through a ton of milk jugs but I sent out an email at work asking for some more. My co-workers probably think I’m a nut because I’m always asking for their “garbage.” But hey, one man’s garbage is another man’s treasure, right? (Or something like that.) This great idea came from Disney Family Fun Magazine. Have you heard of it? It’s awesome! I love it.
It was super easy. We cleaned out the milk jugs. You can use as many as you would like.
Use a permanent marker and draw a face on each one. My kids picked out the faces. Can you guess which one my daughter likes the most?
Then cut a piece out of the back of the jug so you can put lights in it. White lights would have probably looked better but we didn’t have any of the all white ones. So we used a string of multi-colored Christmas lights. (I wanted this to be free so we used what we had.)
Put the lights in the back of the jugs and line them up. I used a piece of duct tape to tape the jugs together. Just in case the wind blew or something. I guess you could fill them with sand or something else to hold them down. Hopefully they won’t blow away =o)
What do you think? It’ll be fun to have these plugged in on Halloween to greet all the trick-or-treaters!
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These are a scream..lol What a great idea! These definitely would be perfect to have out for the trick or treaters on Halloween. I love that they are free and easy. Thanks:)
We made some of these too (http://stuffbyash.blogspot.com/2010/10/ghostly-milk-jugs.html). The duct tape is a great idea, I hadn’t thought of that. Thanks for sharing!
Very cute and a great way to recycle!
SOO cute! Never seen anything like this. What a fun way to recycle, too!
The multi-colored lights look so cute. Love the line-up of faces. That’s one of my favorite magazines, too. Just chock-full of great ideas.
Good job!
So cute – I wonder if they make strings of orange lights? That really is a great magazine, btw.
Found orange lights at Walmart
These are amazing! How fun and what a great way to recycle.
very cute, did not see it in this magazine. thanks for always stopping by my blog
I LOVE this idea! “Free” makes it even better!
My boys just did this and I enjoyed watching their imaginations at work!! Too fun!
Your ghosties looked so festive on your porch, Erin. I think this is one of my favorite decorations. Love the lights you added and the fact that they are FREE!
Erin, please stop by and link these to Theme Party Thursday. I LOVE it when we can decorate with up-cycled materials (boo jars too!)
Just dropping by to thank you for stopping by my blog, becoming a follower and entering my first giveaway! I hope to see you back often!
My family and I have been collecting milk jugs for this same project! Love it!
Tashia @ http://homeinspiredbliss.blogspot.com
How cute. We did something similar but just used our jug (apple juice with a green cap) for orange juice. It’s a great addition to our breakfast table.
I love the faces, and the colored lights are awesome!
Wonderful idea and so cute. Thanks for linking up to my Open House!
This is a fun idea! I’ve seen something similar done with christmas lights, but I love the faces!
Come stop by and promote your blog on my Commercial break! http://suzysartsycraftsysitcom.blogspot.com/2010/10/commercial-break-thursday-promote_14.html
My sister showed me this exact craft and I’m starting to save milk jugs. Yours look great.
Oh my goodness, how cute are those?! I love that they are completely free…I only wish we consumed more milk.
What a hoot these are! I love them. Great job and so frugal. Thanks for sharing.
Vicki at Rusty Rooster Vintage
Yayyy Erin, these are adorable, I too have my garage overflowing with bottles, and milk cartons, and newspapers, and bags, lol. I have to start crafting or Im going to lose it. Love the way they turned out. Come link up girl, you know where!!! **6 weeks 2 Spook** Squeeze those kiddos for me, Take care, Bella 🙂
What a fun idea… and I like the unexpected look of the color lights, too.
What a clever idea! Great decoration for Halloween and so cute.
Super super cute!! What a fun blog. Just found you via Twitter. 🙂
I’ve been saving our milk jugs for the exact same reason. I love Family Fun mag! And I like how you made yours multicolored. They’re unique 🙂
Corinna
Very cute! I love the multi-colored lights! it actually makes them more ghostly, in my opinion!
Thanks for linking up to Making It With Allie!
I hope to see you next week!
AllieMakes.Blogspot.com
Now that is clever!! Thanks so much for sharing! I gotta try this!
These are so cute. I am going to something like this to line my driveway for my Halloween party using candles instead.
Submit them in my Handmade Halloween Contest – starts now!
Susan,
http://entertainexchange.blogspot.com/
Party and Entertaining Inspiration
What a wonderful way to recycle…Love it!
Thanks so much for sharing this.
Well how cute are they all lined up! Fun idea!
Sooo cute!!
Great idea!!
Jenny
http://www.simcoestreet.blogspot.com
great idea! love that it was free!
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This is such a great way to recyle. They looks wonderful.
I love these! I just grabbed my milk jugs out of the recycling box- can’t wait to make them!
-Kara
http://littlelearnerslounge.blogspot.com/
I’ve seen gumdrops made of milk cartons for Christmas, but never the ghosts. This is so cute! I guess I better stop giving my puppy the empty jugs to play with…
Adorable! We go through at least one gallon of milk a day, so I could have quite a lot of these little guys by the time Halloween rolls around.
🙂
ButterYum
So creative!! LOVE it!!! (=
What a great way to get children’s imaginations zooming.
Hi Erin – I wanted you to know I’m posting this terrific idea on my blog tomorrow….I LOVE these fun and frugal ideas! Keep up the good work! http://www.thebetterbaker.blogspot.com
I found you via IShare Crafts and I made your milk jug ghosts with my 3 year old this weekend! I posted (and linked to you!) about them here on my What I Did This Weekend post!
Thanks for the great idea!
-Kristi
What a clever idea! So creative! You should enter them in my sister’s “DIY Halloween Contest”. She’s giving away great prizes! Here’s the link to her contest: http://ellekate.blogspot.com/p/diy-contest.html
Hi Erin! I love this idea! I just linked to it from my holiday craft site:
http://www.allfreeholidaycrafts.com/Halloween-Crafts-for-Kids/Milk-Jug-Ghosts
Let me know if it’s okay to link to your projects like this in the future.
Thanks!
Rachel @ AllFreeHolidayCrafts
Thank you so much for posting this fabulous idea. I have been looking for something nonscarey but cute ghost related to decorate my back yard. I am having a Halloween party and want to add more light to the back yard and dress it up. What an excellent project! Thank you so much.
You have made these Milk Jugs Look So Good. Thank you. Jerri Davis
I bookmarked this last year before I started a Pinterest account, I almost forgot I wanted to do this instead of the traditional pumpkins.
Thanks for reminding me that I wanted to make these this year for Halloween!
How creative! And, unlike carved pumpkins, you can use them year-after-year.
Maybe I would alternate the face jars with some painted solid black or orange.
You inspired me last year to make these – they went down so well with our Trick or Treaters!
Thank you so much for sharing these with me on #CraftyOctober at The Purple Pumpkin Blog! ^_^
I’m so glad you made these, Michelle. Weren’t they easy? But we love them! Happy Halloween!!!
What a cute idea! I love that these are in colors and not just plain florescent Christmas lights. I bet these would be great to line my driveway with to make a path for trick or treaters. I live in the back of a house and really hope to get some kids this year.
Why didn’t I think about this project? I usually start collecting milk jugs around Halloween , but I don’t put them to use until I start putting our Christmas lights up. I weight the jugs down with some sand and line them up around the outside of our house in our flower beds. Then I use the light strands with the big colored bulbs. I push the bulb down through the opening and I get lots of compliments from our neighbors about the beautiful frosted colors.
What a great idea! I bet they look wonderful. I just might have to try this =o)