Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

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How To Make Paper Bats For Lamp Shades

Last week’s Halloween fun didn’t end with that post. In fact we had a few more easy (and cheap!) ideas up our sleeves so we’re back to share the goods. First we took another little Martha Stewart trick and added black bat silhouettes to the insides of our living room lamps:

Halloween2 Bat Lamp After

And it was really easy. Here’s how we did it in under ten minutes using stuff we already had around the house (total cost: $0.00). First I sketched out bat shapes (inspired by a quick google search) on small white pieces of paper (tip: it helps to cut the paper into rectangles that are about the size that you want your finished bats to be just keep you on track):

Halloween2 Bat Drawings

Then I cut those sketches out and created little white stencils that I could trace (with a pencil) onto black construction paper (black cardstock also works if you have that laying around). After they’re traced you simply cut them out and you’re left with awesome little bat shaped pieces of paper (feel free to print this photo out, blow it up and use it as a stencil if you’d like the same bat shapes that we sketched):

Halloween2 Bat Stencils

We especially like that we got three bat shapes for the time that it took to make two since the one bat that’s flying to the left can be flipped over to look like he’s also flying to the right, just to keep things looking a little less formulaic.

Halloween2 Bat Cutouts

Then we just used two loops of scotch tape (one on each wing) to stick each one of them inside the two lamp shades in our living room for a bit of eerie ambiance when the lights are on (of course the obligatory warning here is to make sure they’re firmly in place and nowhere near the hot bulb so they don’t start a fire; CFL bulbs burn a lot cooler so they’re a nice bit of added insurance). Oh and we wondered if you’d see the tape through the shade but you really don’t- just the silhouette of each bat. It’s a super polished look for not much effort. Gotta love that.

Halloween2 Bat Lamp After

And the funny thing is that when the lights are off our linen shades make the bats completely invisible, so they look pretty run of the mill…

Halloween2 Light Off

… until you switch them on for some Halloween fun. We can’t wait to have them glowing in our front window when trick-or-treaters approach on the 31st. It’s like a modern take on carving a pumpkin (don’t worry, we did that too and we’ll share those pics in a bit…). And adding an orange bulb would be the icing on the cake (our shades just happen to cast a yellowy-orange glow as-is).

Halloween2 Lights Far

And of course we had to decorate my beloved concrete greyhound for the occasion too. We used an old necklace I already had laying around for a bit of a dark chain-y look around his neck along with some ever-so-thin spiderwebs (leftover from the porch spookifying project that we have yet to share).

Halloween2 Whippet

Easy and free! The only downside is that we think Burger’s a little jealous at all the attention we paid to the faux dog in the house, so of course we have a costume for him too. Stay tuned for that along with our spooky little porch project and some pumpkin carving pics coming soon. And speaking of soon, we’re going to blink our eyes and it’ll be Christmas so Halloween really is right around the corner. Anyone have any fun costume ideas (for themselves or their dogs)? Any pumpkin carving or porch spookifying projects in the hopper? Do tell.

Comments

  2. Emily says

    My husband and I are going to be Luigi (not a Mario fan) and Princess Peach for Halloween. We are currently in the process of getting our two pomeranians Mario Brothers costumes for Halloween. What can we say we’re a gamer family. :)

    Reply

  7. Jenni says

    Mia our papillon is going to be a turtle, Betty our Boston Terrior is going to be a squirrel and boyfriend and I are going to be lawn ornaments. :) He will be a garden gnome and I will be a pink flamingo. :)

    Reply

  9. Amanda says

    I do love your batty lamps- so great! Wish I could get into the holiday decorating a bit more this year… for both Fall and Christmas. Unfortunately my moving date of Nov. 21 makes that a bit difficult. Sigh… Guess I’ll have to hit the after holiday clearances to stock up for next year.

    Reply

  12. A Southern Accent says

    Wow! You guys are going all out this year. Have you looked at Martha’s Halloween magazine? I love it. I’m planning to spookify my porch this weekend, so look for some pics from me next week!

    Reply

  15. Katie says

    GREAT IDEA! I MADE THE “BLOODY CANDLES” LAST WEEK….AND NOW I MUST GET ON THIS.
    MY POOR DAUGHTER HAD A NIGHTMARE LAST NIGHT….BETTER NOT DO BATS…MAYBE A WITCH HAT. :)
    YOUR POSTS ALWAYS SEEM TO KEEP ME BUSY MAKING THINGS.

    Reply

  16. VSKelly says

    For anyone that has some extra cash to buy some nice Halloween decor this season, Grandin Road has a catalog featuring Martha Stewart collection of Halloween decor and it is top notch. It’s out of our budget as we have too many house projects! But for the crafty, you could probably create something similar. I especially love the glitter skeletons. http://www.grandinroad.com/
    ENJOY!

    Reply

  17. Amy @ Renovation Innovation says

    Holy bat lamps, Robin! Cute idea. We’re not doing any Halloween decorating this year, given that we are still in a state of renovation mess. We won’t be dressing up the pooches either – although last year, our chihuahua make an oh-so-cute devil and our min-pin made the cutest pumpkin. I’ll have to dig out the pics and post them on the blog soon – I’ll send a link when I do…

    Reply

  20. Jenny @ Making the Most of Money says

    I love it! That is brilliant – and so simple too! I can’t believe I’ve never seen it done before. But you can bet it will become a Halloween/other Holiday staple in our household! (I can see it looking awesome with snowflakes, or christmas trees, or gingerbread men, or turkeys, or hearts, or shamrocks…) I love the incredibly inexpensive decoration ideas you guys have! Thanks for the post!

    Reply

  22. Lisa in Seattle says

    Your bats look great! And they are actually quite realistic shaped, too. We have a small bat colony nearby and they hunt right over our house. On summer evenings, I loved sitting on the deck watching them flap around overhead making a dent in the mosquito population. They’re funny, chubby little things that look like they shouldn’t be able to fly at all.

    P.S. Thanks for your earlier tips on spray-painting ceramic objects. It’s working perfectly and things are turning out great!

    Reply

  23. kelly says

    Hey Sherry (& John),

    Great post… you guys are so crafty! I’m pretty sure the bee pillow in the pic is from a giveaway post from earlier, but I can’t seem to find it in the archives. Do you mind sharing where you got it from? I love it!

    (And btw thanks for the post on the magazine monogram- you’re the best!)

    Kelly

    Reply

  24. Jessica J. says

    I’ve got a cute little 12 pound pomeranian who is mostly tan. When I first got her, my husband said she looked like a football – small, compact, mostly brown. So for her first Halloween I surpised him with her costume. I couldn’t find a doggy football costume, so I bought a brown toddler t-shirt at the thrift store and sewed on a white shoelace in the pattern of football stiches on the back.
    She hates to wear it, but we get a good 5 minutes of enjoyment out of it every year :)

    PS. I’m hoping Buger is dressed as himself, a hamburger!

    Reply

  29. Trista says

    I have enjoyed both of your halloween posts. After I read the last one, I drove right over to the Dollar Tree to pick up a crow and a red candle.

    That night I fixed up the candles and picked out a stack of books with creepy titles. I didn’t have any candy for our candy bowl yet, so I just put my $1 crow in the bowl. That night when my husband got home, he almost jumped out of his skin when he saw the bird sitting in the empty bowl. I don’t think he gets all of my attempts at design, but he’s learning to love them. Thanks for the ideas!

    Reply

  30. Elle says

    Wow, I almost fell out of my desk chair as I was reading this post. I did the EXACT same thing to my living room lamp shades! I used bats and witches hats though, but same idea. Can’t wait to see the costume you have for Burgalicious.

    Reply

  31. Katie says

    AHH!! Love it, I’ve already printed out the cut-outs and can’t wait to get home to decorate my lamps with the bats! What a great thrifty idea.! Keep the Halloween ideas rolling….

    Reply

  32. Christina says

    I love all these Halloween posts you guys are doing!! And am so excited we have a couple more to look forward to! We have our halloween costume for our cat all picked out [he will be sporting a bandana and cowboy hat and will be a cowboy obviously] but this is our dog’s first halloween so its gotta be just right for him! [last year our cat was a devil]. I love the bat wings in the lamp, they look great! Can’t wait for more Halloween fun!!

    Reply

  35. Karen says

    Once again, a simple twist for a lot of fun… neat, amazing idea for no cost at all, simply amazing! what could you ask for? keep the ball rolling=)

    Reply

  38. Chrissy says

    My mom dressed up our childhood dog once, who was a chow mix, and the look in her eyes just said, “My ancestors were ferocious wolves who roamed the country in packs being predators and I’m dressed like a pumpkin. How humiliating.” She then preceded to chew up the costume!

    Reply

  39. Jessi says

    I was sitting in our living room with my son doing arts and crafts (his fave!) with Halloween foam stickers when I remembered this post on your blog. I got to thinking…wonder if these smaller foam bat stickers would work? So I tried it, and it looks fabulous! So a super easy and also cheap way to decorate your lamps for Halloween…foam stickers!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Hey KOS,

      The lamps were actually wedding gifts from Linens N’ Things (they’re from their Nate Berkus line and we fell in love with them and registered for two). Miraculously we got both of them before they sold out. Maybe you can find something similar on ebay or nextag.com? Happy hunting…

      xo,
      s

  44. chelsea says

    To the left of your monogram “P” in your living room, what is the picture of? it looks like another monogram “R”, could you give the details on that wall?

    Reply

  45. Erika says

    Ok, this is just a burning question I have, so I figured I’d post it here:

    Do you guys use CFL bulbs? I know they’re great for the environment, a lot less cheaper (in the long run), etc etc but I HATE they way they cast light. Hate it, hate it. I have yet to find them where they don’t shine light that makes my skin crawl.

    Any advice?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Hey Erika,

      We actually do use them in nearly all the fixtures in our house, and the secret is that we tried a bunch to find ones that we like (not too yellow or too blue). We believe the ones we like are labeled “soft white” instead of “sunlight” or “warm light.” Hope it helps!

      xo,
      s

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