Make Budget-Friendly Bat Halloween Decor With Felt and a Branch From Your Yard
Going a little batty? Create a colony of cool, colorful creatures of the night to hang out with.
Crafty Lumberjacks
You've heard about cool cats, but what about cool bats? Add some color and whimsy to your Halloween decor with these colorful cuties made with felt, a branch foraged from your backyard and other simple craft accessories.
Materials + Tools
- felt
- chalk
- scissors
- toothpicks
- wire cutters
- white acrylic paint
- miniature sunglasses
- miniature animal noses
- felt glue
- low-temp hot glue gun
- branch
- baker's twine
Create Bat Stencil
Search for a clip-art drawing of a bat online or sketch a bat freehand. Choose or sketch an image with simple shapes and without a lot of detail. Print or draw onto a piece of card stock and cut out the image carefully to use as a template.
Crafty Lumberjacks
Trace and Cut Out Bats
Use a piece of chalk to trace the template onto a black piece of felt (Image 1). Cut along the traced lines (Image 2), then dust off any chalk that’s left on the felt. Tip: No chalk? No problem: Trace with a permanent marker or pen and flip over your image so there are no trace lines.
Repeat the process on another piece of felt in a bright color of your choice — we're using orange (Image 3). We'll glue this second cut-out to the back of the black bat to give it a 3D effect later.
Crafty Lumberjacks
Crafty Lumberjacks
Crafty Lumberjacks
Make the Fangs
Paint the points of two toothpicks with white acrylic paint for the teeth. Once dry, snip off the tips using a pair of wire cutters.
Crafty Lumberjacks
Add Glasses and Nose
With a pair of wire cutters, cut off the backside of a pair of miniature sunglasses so they will lie flat (Image 1). Use a low-temp hot glue gun to adhere the sunglasses on the center of the face of the black felt bat. Hot glue the nose directly underneath the glasses (Image 2).
Have fun with accessorizing your bats! If you don't have mini sunglasses, you can use two beads instead. If you don't have an animal nose, you can use a small button or glue on an upside-down triangle out of felt.
Crafty Lumberjacks
Crafty Lumberjacks
Glue on Fangs
Add a small dab of felt glue on a piece of scrap paper or paper plate. Grab each fang with the wire cutters and lightly dip them into the glue before adhering them to your bat's face, centered just underneath the bat's nose.
Crafty Lumberjacks
Glue Bats Together
Use a paintbrush to add a light coating of felt glue to the back of the black felt bat. Slightly overlap the black felt bat with the orange bat so the color peeks out from behind.
Crafty Lumberjacks
Glue Bat to Branch
Find a fallen branch and trim down to fit your space. Use a low-temp hot glue gun to adhere the bat (upside-down) onto the branch.
Crafty Lumberjacks
Make More Bats
Repeat the process and create other bats with different pops of color to fill up your branch.
Crafty Lumberjacks
Hang and Enjoy
Tie colorful baker's twine on one end of the branch, leaving about 1 inch of slack before tying it off on the other end of the branch (Image 1). Use what you have or whatever matches your decor best to make the hanger — yarn, ribbon or even wire.
Crafty Lumberjacks
Crafty Lumberjacks
Crafty Lumberjacks
Halloween Crafts and Tours
Make These Cool Cat Costumes Inspired by Iconic Halloween Villains
You only need a handful of supplies to craft up these classic costumes.
The Crafty Lumberjacks' NYC Apartment Is Spooky Perfection 24 Photos
Join the Crafty Lumberjacks on a tour of their Queens, New York, apartment all decked out for Halloween.
40 Ways to Celebrate Halloween at Home 41 Photos
Gather your family for an evening of magical Halloween crafts, games and DIY projects you can enjoy from the comfort of home.
