Tomato Cage Ghosts Tutorial - The Morris Mansion

Last year I made several Pottery Barn decor dupes around Halloween. This year I want to attempt to DIY a few more items. Today, we are going to attempt to make some tomato cage ghosts that light up and can be placed on the porch. Keep reading for a step by step tutorial.

Last week I made some of the DIY Terracotta Jack-O-Lantern pumpkins. This week, I made these tomato cage ghosts and they just turned out so darling. I can’t wait to have them plugged in all spooky season with the rest of my other Halloween decorations.

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Table of Contents

How Tomato Cage Ghosts

Here are the steps for making the tomato cage ghosts to put on the front porch or outdoors somewhere:

Video Tutorial

01. Gather Materials

02. Turn & Secure The Tomato Cage

Next, prepare the tomato cage. I grabbed mine from Lowe’s for about $3.50, so around $7 for the pair of tomato cages. Turn the tomato cage upside down resting on the circle. Secure the top with some zip ties or twine. I used white twine to blend in with the white tablecloth.

03. Attach The Foam Head

The heads will be made of the styrofoam ball. I intended to use a whole ball, but I only had one, so I used a serrated knife. Gently push down on the styrofoam to attach it to the points of the tomato cage. This holds it pretty firmly, but glue can also help it stay in place.

03. Add The Lights

Next, take out your string lights and wrap them around the base of the tomato cage. These will be seen through the tablecloth and are so pretty. Everything looks better with lights. I recommend getting some LED lights that have a warm glow so the light isn’t too cold, but they are energy efficient because you will want to have these on all spooky season long.

04. Drape The White Tablecloth

Open the tablecloth and drape it over the styrofoam and tomato cage. It’s bit fiddly, but cover it until you are happy with the coverage. The inspiration picture has different lengths of draping white fabric across the front, so I did my best to recreate that.

I added another table cloth for a second layer. Once it was draped, I used scissors to cut it until I was happy with how it fell.

05. Make The Ghost’s Eyes

Now it’s time to make the ghost’s face. I am just adding some eyes using some black chalkboard sticker paper from Dollar Tree. Whatever you use, black felt, vinyl, stickers, etc, cut two ovals out for the eyes. Stick them on the ghost where you want them and press firmly to adhere. Hot glue works great if they don’t stay on.

06. Turn Out Lights And Admire

Check the ghosts out at night time when the lights will be the prettiest and the ghosts can really glow! Admire your handiwork! You did that easy DIY and now you can brag to your friends and family! I made this as a set of two. I love how they look paired side by side. They live inside right now, but will move outside when it gets a little closer to Halloween!

07. Bonus Step (Optional)

If you want to have one ghost be slightly different from each other, try this additional step. Grab some sticks from the yard, or some other wire to add to the side of the broom handle. It is best if it is somewhat malleable. Secure those under the white tablecloth, and drape it back over the base. This will now look like the ghost has it’s “arms raised.” Add a tiny pumpkin or jack-o-lantern in between said arms over the table cloth. Glue in place.

Now it looks like the ghost is holding a pumpkin! So cute!