My favorite Holiday is just around the corner! And since Halloween wouldn’t be complete without ghosts spooking around, I made some to wear as a necklace or pin. This was my second try at using polymer clay, so I think it’s safe to say that the following DIY is suited for beginners (^_^).

• You’ll need:
• Roller (I used a cheap fondant roller)
• Round cookie cutters
• Ball tool
• Polymer clay in white*, pink and brown or black.
• Eye hooks and/or pins
• Gloss varnish (optional)

*Instead of using regular white polymer clay, you could also use glitter or glow in the dark clay.

Polymer clay turns out to be a magnet of dust and lint (O_o) So make sure to clean your working surface, surroundings (lock those pets outside ;)) and your hands before you start crafting. For me it still didn’t eliminate all the lint, but I learned from this Youtube video that you can use cleaning wipes to remove the last dust particles (before baking).

1. First soften your clay by hand and shape it into a ball. Flatten the clay with the roller at a thickness of about 5mm. Now use the round cookie cutter to cut out one or multiple circles.

2. You can shape the tail by using you index finger and thumb. Softly press and move your index finger along the right side a few times to make a small tail. Afterwards you can use the roller to gently flatten your shape again.

3. Use the ball tool to make indents for the eyes.

4. Roll two tiny balls for the eyes and roll a ‘snake’ for the mouth. Place them onto the ghost shape by using your hands or a special tool (be careful with your nails, they can dent the clay).

5. Use the ball tool once more to make some dimples for the cheeks. Roll 2 tiny pink balls and place them into the dimples.

6. Softly flatten the cheeks with the bigger end of the ball tool.

7. Push and twist/screw an eye hook into the top of the ghost. You can skip this step if you’d like to use your ghost as a pin.

8. Once you’ve finished your ghosts it’s time to bake them. Preheat the oven at the advised temperature -as stated on the clay package- and place your creations on a baking tray covered with baking paper. I baked them at 100°C degrees for 20 minutes and then left them in the oven to slowly cool down, this helps to prevent cracks.

9. Varnishing the ghosts is optional, but personally I prefer the glossy look. Apply a thin layer of varnish and let it dry. If it’s still not glossy enough, simply keep applying varnish coats until the ghost shines like a diamond.

The tiny ghosts didn’t turn out as planned, hence the sad face, poor thing.

The ghosts on the right are not glossed yet, do you see the difference?

I hope that you enjoyed this DIY and if you plan on making these ghostly charms yourself, feel free to share them on Instagram with hashtag #kaoani I’d love to see your charms or pins!