My new favorite Halloween decoration is this Bat Halloween Photo Collage. I love it so much! It perfectly combines my love of Halloween with my passion for family photos! This bat was created with photos of my family in all of our prior Halloween costumes.
I’ve had a few scattered Halloween frames as part of my decorations I pull out throughout the years, but I wanted to incorporate MORE pictures of our past Halloweens. Why not a giant collage in the shape of a bat? As I worked on this project, my kids had so much fun looking over the pictures, and remembering this costume or that, and I tell you…it made my heart swell with joy.
How to make a Bat Halloween Photo Collage
I wanted the bat BIG, and we have all sorts of scrap wood in our garage. Since it was so big, I thought thin wood was best, so it worked out perfectly that we had this piece left over from a previous project. My hubby is very handy–he draws–and cuts, so I had him do those two parts in the very beginning. Of course the kids had to weigh in on how they thought the bat should look.
After my pretty bat was all cut to size, I adored her as she rested upon our Barn Door TV Cover. It was then that I named her Betty the Bat. I looked at Betty from various angles with my fingers wrapped around my chin…stroking my chin….then batted my eyelashes at my hubby who just cleaned up all of the sawdust and tools, and asked him trim her just a smidgen more. Betty the Bat sits at about 58 inches wide by 22 inches tall.
Even though I knew Betty would be covered in photos, I still had to cover her in black spray paint for the spots that would show through.
I was then ready to layout out my photos. I had gone through my digital files as well as scrapbooks and gathered Halloween pictures from the past 13 years. Because I had no idea how many I would need, I printed about 75 pictures. But It only cost me $10 to print all of them at Sam’s Club. I had previously turned all of the images to black and white in photoshop for more uniformity.
Then I divided the prints into piles to make sure each Halloween was represented, but not clustered together. Next, I placed them strategically around Betty the Bat. And the hardest part was filling in the gaps “just so.” Kinda like a puzzle. It was a fun challenge, though. I had also made prints of Halloween foods we had made, pumpkins, and other “non people” Halloween images, and they made great fillers.
After I had arranged the photos in the right spots, taking into account the curves of the bat, I carefully put a dab of mod podge under each photo to hold in place. After it dried, I applied mod podge to the rest of the bottom of the photos, then let it dry. I then slapped a layer of mod podge over the entire top surface of the photos. I had done it before, and knew it would dry clear. After that dried, I flipped over Betty the Bat and too an exacto knife and trimmed off the excess photos.
For the backdrop, I grabbed another big board from my garage and wrapped it in orange fabric. Then I glued the fabric to the back of the board with mod podge after the staple gun didn’t work. There was a bit too much empty space, so I made a pennant banner with sparkly black paper. I went back and forth with whether or not to mount the bad to the background, but in the end decided to lean her so I could use the giant board for something else if needed.
Up close…
And there you have it…Betty the Halloween Bat Photo Collage!!! I’d LOVE to hear if you end up making a Halloween Photo Collage of any type!Your kids may also enjoy these fun Halloween activities!
For two other Halloween Ideas, check out my Glow in the Dark Bat Art, and how to throw a Couples Halloween party.
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