Glow in the Dark Halloween Bat Project

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A few years ago, I made this Glow in the dark Halloween bat project.  I still use it as part of my Halloween decorations every year and wanted to share with you how I made it.  Hopefully it will inspire you to make something similar of your own!

halloween bat painting

I knew I needed something big as the backdrop for my Halloween mantel, so why not make something?  I realized the bat significance later.  If anyone knows about Austin, we are famous for a bat colony that lives under a bridge downtown.  It’s a tourist attraction in the summer to watch them come out at sunset. Here is my room before:

living room fireplace

There is so much orange and black halloween stuff, but I love when green and purple are incorporated.  Since I have my green armoire, I thought I’d focus on purple (I mean, it isn’t really used much in other holidays, either).  It worked out well as the night sky in my bat scene.

halloween mantel decorations

My inspiration came from 2 places.  First, I saw this colorful board somewhere in blogland (I really wish I remembered where, if anyone knows, plase let me know) and it started my wheels turning.  I loved the empty space in the corner and the spiders (I couldn’t decide between spiders and bats for my project)…

happy halloween sign with spiders …then saw this sheet of scrapbook paper:

bat scrapbook paper I planned to mirror this paper, but when I was looking for a bat hole punch, I found this card with the moon and decided to go in that direction.

homemade halloween cards How to make a Halloween Bat Painting

I went to Home Depot and had them cut down a $5 board to 24×36 (same as my pier canvas). Then I primed it with a grey primer and painted the edges with orange paint.

board painted grey with orange boarder

Next, I added the purple and taped off the orange edge for a straight line.  This required two coats!

purple painted board

I got a pack of paper bats at Joann fabric.  Originally I was going to cut them all out myself, but this was so much easier!

halloween bat painting

I wanted a few more sizes, especially smaller bats.  Luckily a friend of mine had a bat cartridge fore her cricket machine.  I’d never played with the cricket before, so it was fun to watch the process. I got lots of cute little baby bats!  The moon was sortof a last minute addition, and I really like it.  And guess what?  It’s GLOWS in the dark!

glow in the dark halloween bat paintingThis pic was taken with a 2 second shutter in pitch black…I’m not an expert on night photography, but you get the drift.  The purple has a light glow, but it doesn’t show up as well in this pic.

halloween mantle with halloween bat painting

I love colorful decor, and I feel this brings out the fun and bright side of halloween instead of the gothic and dreary.  I hope you love it as much as I do!

Happy Halloween!

 

 

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