Here’s a spoookeriffic Halloween project for kids that can be done in five minutes (if you don’t count drying or clean-up time)—Squeegee Art Ghost Painting!
You might also like Pumpkin Sponge Art
Squeegee art ghost painting is soooo fun and experimental for all ages. And while I say you can make it in five minutes, chances are it’ll be way too tempting to create more ghosts so you might spend a bit longer than that, haha.
I used an ordinary, cheap shower squeegee from the supermarket to create these ghosts. If you’re working with a group, it’s good to have more than one squeegee on hand.
When it comes to paint, washable kids’ paints aren’t going to work because they’re too thin (I tried). You need to use artists’ quality acrylics because they’re denser and give a better scrape effect on coloured paper. I used Jo Sonja’s, commonly found in Australian Art Supply stores. For our US and Canadian readers, try Apple Barrel (affiliate link).
The only drawback with this activity is that there’s a lot of wasted excess paint—a pain when using premium materials. One solution would be to use this to paint paper rolls for future projects, or recycle it into process art somehow (squish art maybe?).
To finish the ghosts, I’ve drawn back into the artwork with Posca pen.
The faces are scrape-painted too. This is done by placing dots of black on the page and squeegeeing the whole image at once. Scraping it is like getting a surprise every time because the ghost’s expression isn’t revealed until it’s done.
Let’s get started …
How to do Squeegee Art Ghost Painting
You will need
- Artist’s quality acrylic paint (affiliate link) in white plus one colour per ghost
- Shower squeegee
- Coloured card stock for the background
- White posca pen (affiliate link)
- Paper towel or washcloth to wipe your squeegee between scrapes
- Newspaper or Baking paper to place beneath your artwork
How to
Place newspaper (or baking paper as I’ve done) on your art surface to protect the table. You will need to throw this away (or if you prefer, use the excess paint to paint paper rolls first).
Squirt three lines of coloured paint directly from the tube onto your paper as shown. This includes an angled line on each side for the arms and a curved line higher than the arms for the head. Use a darker or lighter shade of the background colour for best effect.
Add lines of white paint directly beneath the colour.
Below the curved centre line, where the face should go, squirt three dots of colour for the eyes and mouth.
Now squeegee!
Allow your ghosts to dry.
Use Posca pen to outline your ghosts. You can also outline the eyes and mouth and add other creative details if you like.
Now hang your spooky artworks on the wall to decorate for Halloween!
More Ghost Ideas for Kids
- Create super fun ghost pom pom poppers using balloons and paper cups
- These Yarn Doll Ghosts are a spooky twist on a classic craft
- Here’s a cute and easy paper roll ghost idea
- Create 3D paper ghosts using our printable template
Check out some of our Halloween Printables
