I love Halloween. I have loved it ever since I was a little girl. And I love decorating for Halloween too. My little Ella lit up this year when she saw the Halloween decorations come out. She is quite the little decorator and helped with every bit of it. I thought this little Haunted Halloween Bat tree would be a fun little project for us to do together. And, of course, I will be sharing the free printable template with you so you can make one too!
First, we printed off the templates onto heavy cardstock and cut them out. There are 2 sizes on my template- a medium and a large one. We used a heavy black cardstock that I had on hand for our bats, but you can get it at any hobby or craft store. We were able to fit 3 bats per 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of cardstock, tracing our templates with a pencil.
We cut a bunch of bats out. The nice thing is that they don't need to be perfect at all, so we cut them out pretty quickly.
When we were finished cutting out our bats, I just punched holes in them and hung them with twine. For most of the bats, I actually punched holes right in the head area so they would hang semi-straight.
We stole a few of these branches from my parents' yard. Every Halloween it seems like I am out there stealing branches because they have this wild, awesome clump of trees that have the spookiest branches, complete with black bark and thorns. I hung the bats randomly all over the branches.
Now, these bats are top heavy since the wings go up, so I used those clear cabinet door stoppers to weigh each of them down. They are nice because they already have an adhesive on the back of them and I could easily just stick them to the backside of each bat to make them hang straight. Keep in mind that this is not a project for perfectionists... so if you are one, just know that the charm of these bats is that they twirl around and hang off center, and are just spooky and fun... and not perfect!
I used a vase that I had bought at Hobby Lobby a while ago, and ribbon that I found at Craft Warehouse. The basket tray is from Pottery Barn a while back, and the adorable pumpkins are from a local farm (The Berry Ranch for all you locals). This is one of those projects that is perfect to use the things you already have around the house.
You can find the free printable bat template HERE. Please remember this is for personal use only. If you make a fun bat tree, be sure to post a picture on Instagram and tag me so I can see!
Sonja @ SustainMyCraftHabit
I love this, such a great use for the tree branch. It's absolutely adorable!
Theresa @DearCreatives
Thanks for sharing your free printable at the Inspiration Spotlight party. Pinned & shared.
Jamie @ Medium Sized Family
This is such a cute idea! Now I wish I'd bought more white pumpkins yesterday. They look great with the bats.
Lara
gorgeous!
Ter bissonne
So classy and elegant I love this idea.
Suzanne
So easy, so cute and so cheap!! How clever and simply elegant. Well done you.