Paper Roll Ghost

This paper roll ghost is such a simple Halloween craft! It’s easy enough that kids of all ages should be able to make it. My kids had so much fun flying theirs around the house and watching the tail blow like a flying ghost. Or you could even hang it up as a fun Halloween decoration!

They’re made from paper, so these paper roll ghosts won’t survive outside on rainy days, but wouldn’t they look awesome hanging from the trees on Halloween night?! The trailing tissue paper tail looks super spooky when it blows in the wind!

I love paper roll crafts. Especially crafts where you can just cover the paper roll with white paper rather than painting it. Any time I can avoid paint, I’m a happy crafter. Don’t get me wrong, if you are a strong, confident person who doesn’t let a little paint raise your blood pressure, the kids would LOVE painting the toilet paper rolls!

This paper roll ghost is SUCH a fun craft for Halloween! It's a super simple kids craft and makes a great Halloween decoration! The tail even blows in the wind!

Or if you’re from the camp that doesn’t like using toilet paper rolls for crafts – or maybe you just forget to save them – simply roll up a piece of white card stock, and use that instead (cut it to 4.5″ tall by 6.5″ wide). There’s lots of variations, and they’re all so easy!

The less messy a craft is, the more I like it – which is why I wrote a book called Low-Mess Crafts for Kids which is packed with super cute and simple low mess crafts, with as little mess as possible. I put together 72 crafts that keep the chances of messes, splatters, spills and scraps to an absolute minimum so you can worry less about the mess and focus on creativity and having fun! The book makes a great gift for the holidays, so be sure to check it out!

Paper Roll Ghost Tutorial

Here’s what you’ll need. The affiliate links below will take you to products on Amazon that are similar to the ones I used for this craft:

1 toilet paper roll

1 sheet of printer paper

1 scrap of black construction paper

white tissue paper

2 large (1″) googly eyes

yarn or twine

single hole punch

You should be able to find most of these supplies around the home. If you don’t have crafter’s tape or a single hole punch, I definitely recommend adding them to your craft stash. They make life so much easier for so many crafts!

Cut out a strip of paper just wide enough to cover the toilet paper roll. You could also paint the paper roll, but it’s way less messy to just cover it with paper!

Roll the paper around the toilet paper roll, just as you’d do if you were wrapping a present and secure it with some tape.

Cut out an oval shape from the black construction paper. Attach it to the paper roll using crafter’s tape.

Then attach the googly eyes to the paper roll, again using crafter’s tape.

Fold the leftover scrap of white paper in half and cut out an arm shape like in the photo below. My arms were about 1″ wide and 6.5″ long.

Add some crafter’s tape to the arms. You’ll want to add a couple lines of crafter’s tape that are about 2.5″ long down the center of the arms.

Center the arms on the back of the paper roll and press them onto the ghost. If your arms aren’t curling forward, you might need to add a little more crafter’s tape so they wrap around to the front.

Use a single hole punch to punch 2 holes in the top of the paper roll. I wanted my ghost to hang at a bit of an angle, so one of the holes is right near the top and the other hole is further down the side.

Cut a length of yarn and thread it through the two holes in the ghost. Tie the ends together.

Cut 2 pieces of tissue paper about 5″ wide by 10″ tall. I cut along the folds that were already in my tissue paper, so it really doesn’t need to be exact.

Then make long cuts into the tissue paper, as shown below, so that each strip is about 3/4″ wide.

You may want to cut your tissue paper even smaller so you’re only attaching 2 or 3 strips into the paper roll at a time.

Press a piece of tape onto the tissue paper, then carefully slide it into the bottom of the toilet paper roll. Press the tape onto the paper roll so it stays in place. Repeat for the other strips of tissue paper until you’ve attached strips around the entire inside bottom edge of the paper roll.

Turn it upright and you’re done!

This paper roll ghost is SUCH a fun craft for Halloween! It's a super simple kids craft and makes a great Halloween decoration! The tail even blows in the wind!

You can hang it up as a Halloween decoration and the tissue paper will blow in the wind.

This paper roll ghost is SUCH a fun craft for Halloween! It's a super simple kids craft and makes a great Halloween decoration! The tail even blows in the wind!

My kids had lots of fun holding onto the string and flying the little ghosty through the air and watching its tail follow.

This paper roll ghost is SUCH a fun craft for Halloween! It's a super simple kids craft and makes a great Halloween decoration! The tail even blows in the wind!

This paper roll ghost is SUCH a fun craft for Halloween! It’s a super simple kids craft and makes a great Halloween decoration! The tail even blows in the wind!

If you’re looking for more simple kids crafts for Halloween, check out our tutorial for making wooden spoon bats. These guys are simple to make and they’re so much fun!