How to Make Spooky Hanging Bats With Paper

On Halloween, welcome trick-or-treaters in hair-raising style by turning your front porch into a bat cave. Best of all, these high-impact paper decorations are simple to make with our printable template.

By

Martha Stewart Editors

Updated on August 13, 2022

As you get your porch ready for Halloween—and this year's horde of trick-or-treaters—you might be searching for an easy way to up your entryway's spooky factor. Enter this Halloween craft: These paper bat cut-outs, which are simple to make thanks to our printable template, will transform the front of your house into a bat cave.

Creating these creatures of the night is straightforward, but get creative when you suspend them from your porch's rafters. Hang your bats in different orientations (make sure a few sleepy critters are upside-down) and enlist twine or string to ensure a few hang down from the ceiling—bats are scariest when they're mid-flight, after all.

What You'll Need

Materials

Half-bat template
Thick black paper
Scissors
Bone folder
Painters' tape or removable hooks

Instructions

Print our half-bat template; then fold a piece of thick black paper down the middle, place the template on the fold, and trace. Cut out, and unfold. Use a bone folder to crease wings (and fold opposite the direction of body fold).
Poke holes in the bat for monofilament: in the tail for an upside-down bat, in the wings and head for one that's right side up. Hang from ceiling with painters' tape or removable hooks.

Originally appeared: MARTHA STEWART