What's better than a spooky Halloween decoration that's also a literal interpretation of one of the coolest cars in superhero land? Um … nothing. Your kids will love telling friends about the bat mobile they made all on their own. This is a great project for a playdate, a crafting party or just an evening at home with the family. Here's how you do it:
Supplies
small grapevine wreath
black spraypaint
assorted black construction paper or thick card stock (textured paper adds interest)
black yarn
pencil
hole punch
scissors
Directions
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The night before you're planning to start the project, coat the entire grapevine wreath with black spraypaint and let it dry. It's a good idea to do this outside to keep your home clean and fresh-smelling.
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Print out the template below, and cut out each bat shape. These will become the stencils that you'll use to create all your bats.
- Using the stencils you just created, trace six bats per mobile onto black paper. Use whichever shape you prefer or a mixture of the two. Use a pencil for tracing—it's more forgiving and shows up better on black paper.
- Carefully cut out the bat shapes along the lines you just drew.
- Punch holes on the ends of each bat wing. You'll use these holes to hang your bats from the wreath.
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Cut pieces of yarn to hang your bats. You'll need six 12-inch strands and six 36-inch strands.
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Tie one end of each piece of string to one side of a bat, then tie the other end onto a little branch on the wreath. When you're done, you'll have three bats hanging about a foot under the wreath, and three bats hanging about 3 feet under.
- Prepare the mobile to hang from the ceiling or a hook. Cut three pieces of string to the same length. Tie one end of each string to the top of the grapevine wreath, arranging them so that each one is about a third of the way around. (In other words, the spaces between where the three strings are tied on should be equidistant.) Then, bring the other ends of all three pieces together and knot them, making a loop. You'll use this loop to hang the mobile from a hook, tack or anything else that will keep it elevated.
