DIY Gone Batty Tree

This bat tree was a HUGE hit when I pinned the original idea I found, let's see if mine can be a hit too. This is a pretty easy project but beware when breaking branches off your dead tree in the backyard because dead branches cause much more damage when you scrape up yours arms and hands with them. It only took 3 band aides to cover my wounds :( This is the dead tree in my backyard that wasn't giving up any branches without a fight, as you will see at the end I won though bwhahaha.

Soooo now that I have defeated the tree moving on to supplies. You need a black foam sheet, small pot or vase, small styrofoam (in whatever shape and size will fit your pot), bat template, some clothespins, hot glue and some kind of moss.

Start by tracing or cutting out some bats from the foam in whatever way seems to work for you. I used a small craft razor knife I had and it worked perfect.

Put your foam piece in your pot or vase. Mine fit very snug but if yours is a little loose fitting just put some glue around the sides before you shove it in there.

Now carefully shove in your branches making sure to have them arranged exactly how you want them as you put them in so you don't break down the styrofoam to much. I had one that I twisted around to much so I just filled the hole in with some glue to hold the branch in place better.

Now hot glue your bats to the ends of some clothespins and clip them to your tree. Cover the top of the styrofoam with some hot glue and place chunks of moss on it. Make sure to do this in sections so your glue doesn't start to dry and so your moss stays in chunks and doesn't start falling apart.

Oh and I added some red eyes to the bats with a drop of paint. Enjoy!

 

Cost breakdown:

$1 for the pot

$1 for the styrofoam

$1 for the clothespins

Branches (3 band aides were used to get them)

$1 for the foam

$1 for the moss