Halloween Bat Brad & Thread Art

  In my slight obsessive mission to re-create nail and thread art with as many different materials as possible, the most popular alternative was brad and thread, which I used to create a simple diamond.

Today, I'm showing how the same technique can be used for a slightly different shape - the bat.

Perfect for Halloween decor, here's how to make your own.

What I used:

Black Card

Selection of brads / Sharpie

Silver Thread

Bat Print

[my printer continues to be amazing]

Using the power of Google to find me a suitable shape, I printed a picture of a bat at the size of my card, using this as my guide, I placed it on top.  With a push pin to help and prevent creasing the card, I made pin holes at the points that would define the outline of the bat: the tips of the wings, ears, feet, and then pushed my brads through and secured:

I had varying sizes of brads, which helped add a little details - I used the larger brads to define the wings, smaller for the ears and feet and the smallest size for details of the head and wing shape:

[if you run out of brads the colour you require, a Sharpie can help you cover this up!]

[dont worry, I didn't let that pesky yellow brad get away]

Once all the brads were in place and my bat silhouette defined, I started to carefully rip away the print out.  Tweezers can come in handy if any paper gets caught under the brads.

This will reveal a perfect outline for you to start joining up with thread.

Create a knot at one end and begin wrapping between each brad in turn:

The shape of your bat will begin to define and you can emphasise this with the type of thread you use and how many times you wrap it between each brad.  Once the outline was made, I added a little, simple detail, between the wings.

Once you are happy with the design, take your thread to a knot around the final brad and trim to hide any excess.  Your brad and thread art is ready to hang:

...or should it be the other way?

Give this a try with any other Halloween-themed silhouettes - a detailed spider would look amazing.

see you next time x

[tomorrow, it's a ghost-balloon-alien-tassel hybrid]