Bats, Bats, Bats

As we continue to get prepared for the Halloween festivities, we have made some fun bat decorations. We have a bat mobile (not to be confused with the Batmobile) hanging from the dining room chandelier. We used black construction paper to make various sizes of bats. We added googly eyes on both sides of each bat and strung them together with nylon thread. 

A few years ago I made a bat hat out of a straw hat, some craft foam and puffy paint.   (I was inspired by a similar bat hat when I made it, so I wouldn't claim it as my own idea but also don't have the information to give proper credit for the inspiration.  If I find it, I will certainly update.)  We display this every year.  It usually goes on the front door since it offers a greeting to guests. This year it’s joining the bat mobile in the dining room.

 

A third bat decoration in the dining room (now fondly referred to as the bat room) includes some paper bats hanging from the curtains.  I was inspired by the Clothespin Bats from marthastewart.com.  We took some heavier paper (a bit stronger than paper bags) and painted it black with some acrylic craft paint.  (Some others were made with construction paper, but it doesn't hold up as well and the black is not as bold as the painted paper.)

 

 

Then we cut out the bat shapes with a template similar to the mobile bats.  We made sure to give these bats feet since they would be “hanging” from the curtain.  We glued clothespins to the back where they wouldn’t be seen and pinned them to the curtain. 

 

My daughter had to correctly point out that bats do not sleep with their wings spread, so we folded some of their wings in so they could rest more comfortably.