Bat Crown (glow in the Dark)

Every Queen needs a crown! Wow people with your bat guards hovering over you all evening. Add glow in the dark eyes for nighttime effect.

My goal each Halloween is to only spend $20-30 for 3 costumes and yard decorations. I just don't see the point in spending $50-200 for everything when I can pull it off for way cheaper. I'm excited to share all of my crafting ideas to help everyone accomplish the same for pennies compared to the BORING, EVERYONE HAS IT store bought stuff.

Super cheap and easy!

Craft time - 2-3 hours

Supplies needed:

Headband 1" wide or more

Drill with 1/16" bit - for those without power tools a small wood screw with a sharp point will work

18-22 gauge wire - make sure your wire is stiff

White glue

Card stock in color of your choosing

Hot glue gun

Thick cardboard roll - or a round log - or a terra cotta pot (if your careful) - or whatever you find that you can brace the headband on and drill

Exact o Knife

Needle nose pliers

I'm matching mine up with the https://www.instructables.com/id/CHEAP-Masquerade-Mask/

♥♥♥ Thank you for the hearts and to my teenage son for wearing my stuff knowing it's going to get posted ♥♥♥

BaTTy for BaTs!!

Decide on the number of bats you want

Using free online cutouts of bats you can create the a template with a full bat cutout by just folding the bat in half. There are tons of bat templates out there to choose from .

Print and cut out the bat template you are going to use in the size you desire - I had four templates 1", 1.25, 1.5 and 2"

** Next time I want to mix up the style of bats I use **

Then measure your bats, cut strips of paper long enough and wide enough - once cut fold your strips in half (see image)

Stack your strips on top on one another and then trace out your template with a exacto - doing this gets you 2-4 bats for one cut- fine tune the edges once cut

** Always cut away from yourself **

Unfold your bat and poke a hole in the middle

Use the scraps for cutting out little squares that cover the body of the bat, to sandwich the wire in between

Flying BaTs!

In this step you're going to have to wing it a bit

Figure out how you want it designed - or you can follow the diagram I have to make one like mine - I laid my headband down and then judged the length of each bat my laying all the wires out in the general pattern I desired

Cut your wire to the desired length always cutting a good 2-3" more than needed

Poke wire through bat - make a curl on one end - bend at curl 90 degrees - pull bat up and flush with curl

Glue square on top of the curl -press firmly - set aside to dry - white glue works just fine for this step

Headband Design

My layout template - start with the top middle hole then work down both sides - I stopped where the teeth ended

** I eyed the distance on all of mine so it doesn't have to be perfect **

Use your bracing item to brace the headband against as you drill the holes

Clean the bit off each time you complete a hole or the plastic will melt and clog the drill bit - same goes for wood screws

** I almost caught my hand with the drill when it punched through so puleeze be careful **

Flying BaTs (part 2)

Once your bats have dried on their wires

Start inserting them into the head band

Pick your height -snip - make a curl in end - make a 90 degree bend - push flat to bottom of head band

Pick a direction you want your bat to fly - then hot glue in place

I used narrow strips of black paper to press into the hot glue to smooth out any lumps and secure the bat better in place -you can also use strips of cloth but be careful! use an old tshirt tripled over to press into place to smooth out the underside of the headband ( I only say this because I have friends who burn themselves constantly ;-P )

Wait about 5-10 seconds after applying the hot glue before pressing the paper / cloth and smoothing because it squishes everywhere and its HOT!!

Exacto off any excess hot glue and paper - always cut away from yourself never towards

Final Touches

You can add glow in the dark dots for eyes or purple glitter on the wings

I just did eyes on mine :-)

Happy Haunts!

*** I should give credit to the many other sites showing this idea. None of them explained how to create it or if they did it was vague. I came up with my own design, a way to attach them more permanently and then documented it all for you ***