grace grits and gardening - ramblings from an arkansas farm girl

Halloween Shadow

October 22, 2013 By Talya Tate Boerner

wordless wednesday

Halloween 2012
Dairy Hollow, Eureka Springs, Ar

talya

Grace Grits and Gardening
Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

THIS flying bat project is my favorite Halloween craft. I made these flying felt bats several years ago after reading a how-to article in Country Living. Click HERE for the original felt bat article and template.

This project requires only stiff black felt, duct tape, scissors, one piece of paper and a pencil.

Draw a bat pattern on the paper. Cut out the first bat and use it as your pattern for the others. The more bats you make, the better. I have about forty in two different sizes.

Duct tape the bats across the front door area of your house as though they are flying in a colony. To make your display more realistic, space them unevenly and not in the identical direction. In nature, bats fly in a more sporadic formation.

See how these real bats look…

Morguefile

Here’s my naked front door.

I’ve added a few of the largest bats.

Duct tape…

Here’s a shot with all the large bats attached. (Look closely and you can see two schnauzers watching from inside…).

Fill in the flock with smaller bats placing most of them on the left-hand bottom side and the right-hand uppermost side. This creates the illusion of distance.

That’s all there is to it!

A flock of bats would look great indoors as well around a window or fireplace.

After Halloween, use care slowly removing the bats as duct tape can peel paint. Store your bats folded in a plastic bag. Next year, they will be perfectly shaped as though flapping their wings.