Bat Shadowbow Collage

Although it's an old post, when I recently saw Ali Edward's butterfly punch collage I immediately saw the possibilities for a creepier version for my home. Seems that Tatertots and Jello had the same idea for a series of three Halloween-themed collages and I happened to check blogger right before leaving for a trip to Michaels last night. Once I saw what she'd done and saw her helpful tutorial, I added a few extra items to my shopping list.

Irritatingly, the exact same frame she used was $1 more at our Michaels. I guess that's the price one pays for the privilege of living and shopping in glorious New Jersey, eh? As all of their frames were conveniently 50% off, I instead opted for a deep shadowbox that was also $5. I like having the option of standing it up on a dresser or tabletop since there isn't much available wall space in the house. I also splurged on Martha Stewart's bat punch, which was still $8 at 20% off. I'm sure I'll use it again so I can sort of justify that purchase. Perhaps one day I'll be lucky enough to own a Cricut or Silhouette Craft Cutter but until I find a spare $300+ I'll have to find other options.




To save money, I printed out my own funky designs to punch the bats out of. The background is some Martha Stewart scrapbook paper I got last year at a post-Halloween sale. I did have to go back and spend more to get small double-sided adhesive foam squares because I wanted a little height on my bats. Again, they were more than I wanted to spend but at least they were on sale too.


To make sure everything was spaced and lined up properly, I printed out a table made in Word to the same dimensions as my frame (5" x 7"), laid it on top of the background, and stuck pins through at each cross point. They left a clear mark once removed so I knew exactly where to stick my bats. Folded the bat wings a bit to make them look mid-flight and I was done!


This was a fun one to plan and even more fun to put together. I whipped it up in an evening and now have the perfect custom-made art for our spooky house!