Condo Blues: How to Make Outdoor Flying Bat Halloween Decorations #HalloweenMP

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

How to Make Outdoor Flying Bat Halloween Decorations #HalloweenMP

Husband and I are decorating the house for Lacey’s first Halloween.

I asked Lacey what type of  Halloween decorations she wante on the front porch she asked for a swarm of 3D flying bats she can chase. Typical spaniel. Lacey loves to “hunt” anything that flies.

howtomakeflyingbatdecorations



I knew how I wanted Lacey's bats to look but I wasn't sure what materials I could make them from. I can shape paper but it won't hold up outdoors in damp weather (is was drizzling when I took the outdoor photos for this post.)

Hm…think, think, thinkidy, think.




Hey Lisa, remember the Stiffy Fabric Stiffener and Mod Podge Outdoor Plaid sent you to try? I bet you could use Stiffy to make my bats from our extra recycled bottle shopping bags and weatherproof them with a coat of Mod Podge Outdoor.

Oh my goodness, my little girl is smart! Let’s make her some bats.

How to Make Weatherproof Recycled Bag Halloween Bat Décor


I made 3D sleeping and flying bat decorations. I added the sleeping bats because seeing the big African bats asleep and hanging from the ceiling of their enclosure at the zoo is spooks me. Actually all bats spook me because there were bats in the basement of my first apartment building and they sometimes flew around my apartment.

That is the reason why these bats have to live outside on the porch.


hanginghalloweenbatdecoration


You will need:

Stiffy Fabric Stiffener
Mod Podge Outdoor
Paint brush
Bowl
Clothes pins
Black recycled plastic shopping bags or utility fabric
scissors
Bat templates (I used The Long Thread’s bat template and Macaroni Soup big bat template)
Straight Pins
Painter’s tape

Make it:

1. Pin the bat templates to the black recycled shopping bag with the straight pins and cut the template out with the scissors.

howtomakerecycledbagbats
Snip! Snip!

2. Shake the bottle of Stiffy Fabric Stiffener to mix it and pour it into the bowl.

3. Submerge a bat cutout into the bowl and thoroughly cover it with Stiffy.

makefabricstiffenerbat
Dip! Dip!

4. Remove the bat from the liquid. Use your fingers as a squeegee to remove the excess liquid.
Warning: Do not wring the fabric or your bat will dry with wrinkles. No body likes extra wrinkles, especially bats.

5. Clip the clothes pins to the bats to create the illusion of flying and sleeping bats as desired.

howtomakesleepingbat
I let the sleeping bats dry on top of a craft paint bottle to encourage them to dry in a cone shape.

6. Arrange the bats on a nonstick form in the shape you desire. I used craft paint bottles.

howtomakeoutdoorhalloweenbats
I removed the newspaper from the table after it absorbed the excess liquid. If I didn’t, the bats may stick to  the newspaper.

7. Allow the Stiffy Fabric Stiffener to dry overnight.

8. To protect the bats in the outdoor elements, use the paint brush to cover the stiff bats with a thin coat of Mod Podge Outdoor and allow it to dry.

9. Remove the clothes pins and forms from the dry bats.

10. Use the painter’s tape to hang the bats out side of your house. I’m using painter’s tape because I don’t want the tape to mar the finish of my house and front door when I eventually remove the bats after Halloween.


flyingbathalloweendeocorations
Fly my pretties! Fly!

11. Celebrate Halloween with the Terror that Flaps in the Night!



Want more outdoor Halloween decorating ideas? Check out these project from some of the most talented bloggers I know!


Did you enjoy this post? Get more like it by subscribing to the Condo Blues RSS Feed or to Condo Blues by Email.

Disclosure: Plaid Enterprises provided me with sample product in order to design this project. This did not influence my opinion in anyway because all opinions are 100% my own.

1 comment :

Life as a LEO Wife said...

These are so cute (& spooky)! Thanks for sharing on Crafty Creators!

Post a Comment

I love comments and read them all! If you’re shy and don’t want your opinions made public, you can always email me at condoblues [at] gmail [dot] com.