As an influencer, I am SO late to the Halloween decorating game, but better late than never, right?! I used to be more on the “meh” side of decorating the house for various holidays, and now with a young daughter, I have come full circle, and I’m all in. I think it’s the excitement we see in her eyes; the way they light up when the Christmas lights are turned on, or in this case… every time we walk down the stairs and the excitement she lets out when see the decorative spiders (she’s a little weirdo, I know, but she loves spiders right now).
We are definitely on a budget, so I’m trying to be all in on Halloween decor while being mindful of the cost that comes with that.
Before I made this decision, I asked McGregor if I should decorate for Halloween, and he was like YEAH! That definitely needed to be all caps as he was seriously “kid in a candy store” excited. So I said okay, I will spend $30 on decorations and see where that gets us.
I knew I wanted this super-duper popular Halloween bat decor however, as I was looking to purchase them, it was 2/3 of my budget! I ALMOST did it… like actually so close. Until a gigantic light bulb moment happened; I realized I could make these for very little money.
I mentioned in last week’s D.I.Y Boho Coaster post that I was done with Sun-D.I.Y for a little while until I got some fresh ideas. Well, lucky for you guys I don’t stop dreaming up new crafts so here is my latest fresh idea that arrived with ample time to share round… 5? of Sun-D.I.Y with this Halloween bat decor.
Halloween Bat Decor Simplicity
As I was coming up with this Halloween bat decor – well, really trying to think about how I could get them not to take up 2/3 of my very low Halloween budget, I knew it needed to be as simple as possible for me.
I’m the furthest thing from someone capable of drawing ANYTHING. However, I pinpointed that I could use paper and my drawing skills to make these bats but knew I definitely needed a solution on the drawing skills front.
Then I remembered what I did when I made one of my best friend’s birthday cakes: it was a pavola in the shape of a “3” and another in the shape of a “0”. I took out the iPad and found bubble letters of a 3 and bubble letters of a 0 and traced it onto paper. There you had it, the iPad functioning as the perfect stencil.
I applied the same principle for this one and googled “bat coloring page.”
My Halloween Decor Under $30
So aside from the Halloween bat decor, which I will get into how to make below, I also wanted to run through my haul.
Because our budget was only $30, I knew I could only do one area of the house and knew it should be the fireplace as a focal point.
So, for $29.98, I bought:
+ 6 little spiders (for Sloane)
+ spider’s web (otherwise, where would the spiders go?!)
+A skull that looks like a three-pack when you order online but is just one
+ A skeleton
+ A ghost (didn’t think through where to hang it, so it’s actually outside – there’s blue painters tape in the top picture where I tried to hang it. Clearly, it didn’t work, but I decided to leave the tape in the picture because… well… it’s real life. ALSO looks like three but is just one)
+ Materials for the bats (below)
I would say, not too shabby, right?! Okay, but the best part is that this set of bats you see on the wall cost me $1.80 to make. That’s practically free. You too should have most of these items at home so I can’t imagine it costing anyone much more than $1.80.
How to Make D.I.Y $1.80 Halloween Bat Decor
Materials
+ Black Poster Board (a 22″ x 28″ piece will make approximately 8 larger bats and 11 smaller ones)
+ Bat to trace or print and cut out from the internet.
+ Silver sharpie or something you will be able to see on black poster board
+ Scissors
+ Painters tape
Instructions
1. Using a random piece of paper, trace your bat from your device (laptop, iPad, whatever you have to work with). I made this one as big as I could on the screen and to still be able to see it. Once the first one is traced, shrink the bat to your desired “small’ bat size and trace another bat on another piece of paper. You can also print the bats and cut them out to use them as a stencil. You’d need to figure out how to size them as two different sizes if that’s the route you’re going.
2. Trace your bat outlines onto your poster board using a pencil, marker, or crayon that you can see the outline on the black poster board. Keep them spaced as close together as possible to get as many bats as you can made. My approach was to fit as many bats as I could onto it, I had no expectation for how many large vs. small bats I wanted to see. You can take any approach you want.
3. Start cutting out the bats along your traced lines.
4. To create a 3D effect, fold the wings slightly up to your front side (I made my front side the opposite side to which I traced so you couldn’t see my outlines). I use the bats head as my marker for where to fold on either side.
5. Add painters tape to the back, and stick the bats in a pattern of your choice onto the wall!
6. Sit back and admire your $1.80 piece of artwork.
Okay, well, obviously, I'm full in on Halloween now!!! First my D.I.Y Halloween Bats and now Rockstu
By now, you likely know that through the blogging world everything is done way sooner than when any
Erin
These are so stinking cute! I swear everyone has been posting the most adorable bat decor this Halloween. I love it! 🙂 & these honestly look so simple to make, but still turned out so well.