Bats everywhere! Their arrival into the month of October has begun the Halloween festivities. A week ago, I decided to make some Halloween decorations for my room, because why not? I figured it there was any time to spookify my room it would be now. I’ll walk you through what I did. Don’t worry, this tutorial doesn’t require immense amounts of artistic skill. It’s a quick and easy way to make bat decorations for your wall with materials you may already have.
OK, let’s get started!
1. Gather the materials
- You’ll need one pair of scissors
- Around 10 pieces of white printer paper *
- Black paint (I used Acrylic)
- Paint brush (I used a ¾ brush but it doesn’t really matter, it’s just easier with at least a medium brush).
- Pencil
- Paper plate or literally anything you can put a blob of paint on
- Computer
- Printer
You can find some great free bat patterns here. The one that I used in this tutorial is this one.
*If you have some scrap paper you can also use that. In fact, it would be better because it’s less wasteful.
2. Make the silhouette of the bat
For this step, I opened up the desired bat pattern on my computer, placed the paper on the screen, and softly traced the lines. You could also just simply print out the image. Use different types of bat patterns to add variety and creativity.
3. Paint
Whether you printed it out, or traced it from your computer, this step is the same. Turn the paper around so the bat is not facing you. Put the paper up to the light and get a general idea of what the bat looks like. Paint the area with your brush (you can put it down at this point). The lines do not need to be perfect. Once your paper looks like an inkblot test and you covered the general area well, let it dry.
4. Cut it out
Once your paper is completely dry, turn it around so the bat is facing you. Grab your handy-dandy scissors and cut on the lines. You may notice A little bit of white here and there around the edges. Fret not. Place your bat painted side towards you on a scrap piece of paper, grab your brush, dip it in paint and stroke from the inside out. It’s OK if you paint on the scrap piece of paper.
5. Decorate
With your lovely bats all cut up, stick a piece of tape on the unpainted side and place them anywhere you want. If you want the bats to have a 3D effect, I recommend you use a sturdier type of paper, bend the wing towards you, and paint the back of the bat as well.
Alternative:
Use black cardstock or construction paper. This way you can skip painting and have a better 3D effect as described above.
Enjoy your new bat decorations!
