I have been really excited to decorate for Halloween this year. We recently redid our dining room, adding a larger dining table and making the fireplace a more focal point in our home.
I’ve been wanting to get a new dining set for some time now – one that would be able to accommodate our family of seven, plus the four grandparents that visit often, all at once. We finally found the perfect table a couple of months ago.
And then the shipping company lost it. We thought we would have to wait months for a replacement through the company that hand makes them, but it was found on a shipping dock a couple of week later.
I held my breathe until it as completely assembled in our dining room, but it was perfect. We spend so much more time in the dining room now.
Our fire place is in the dining room and I have been really excited about doing something dramatic to make this a spooky focal point in the house. I spent a lot of time arranging decor on the mantle, but I just couldn’t find the perfect combination, until I came across this idea to fill the wall with paper bats.
Initially I saw the idea at Target, where they were selling paper bats. I think it was a 12 count package, and I knew I was going to want many bats, so I decided it would be more cost effective to but some cardstock and cut the bats on my Cricut machine.
This project was so simple – it took me about three hours from start to finish, and that included the time I spent creating the bat images that I am including below, so it should make for a quick Hallowen DIY!
I decided to make three different sizes of bats – a 6 inch, 4 inch and 2 inch. That allowed me to create the illusion of bats flying up and away.
In this room we have cathedral ceilings, and I knew I wasn’t going to go all the way up with the bats. I chose to make it look like the bats were flying behind a large picture hanging above the fireplace and past a lighted crescent moon wreath, like this one here, then I continued on to another wall to make it look like they were flying to the window.
The possibilities are endless here, and you can use the different sizes to create all kinds of dramatic scenes.
The instructions are simple. Here’s what you’ll need:
- Black Cardstock (I used medium weight 8.5″X11″ cardstock)
- Painter’s Tape to hang the bats
- Cricut or Silhouette Cutting Machine with a standard blade
Instructions:
Download the paper bat SVG files:
Using the black cardstock, cut the desired number of bats on your cutting machine.
Carefully remove the paper bats from your cutting mat (I use a flat scraping tool to do this, as pulling them off from one side may make them curl).
One I have a pile of paper bats I like to fold them along these points to give them more dimension:
First fold the bat in half, then open it.
Next, fold the wings near the body upwards. Then, fold the outer part of the wing downwards. They will look like this when done:
Take your folded bats and, using painter’s tape, scotch tape or glue dots (I only use painter’s tape because I know it won’t damage my walls) begin applying bats to the wall.
I found it helpful to step back frequently to take in the whole wall, then adjust bats until I was happy with the placement!
That’s it, you’ve got your own spooky bat wall!
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