Boa Bats Revisited

One of the things I've been doing during Covid is going through my craft stash and either finally finishing projects or donating things I'm never going to use.  

I really like these adorable boa bats, and had the best of intentions to create a whole colony of them.  So I stocked up on supplies and then procrastinated for years because as much as I like them, I despise cutting things out more.  

I posted about these guys one Creepmas because I have a cute bunch of these that are all snowy white just for that occasion.  I had a new idea for making these and went back to that post to find the original source and it doesn't exist anymore.  

Luckily I still had the templates I made from the original source, so I didn't have to create my own design.   The original craft sported three different style of wings, although I wasn't crazy about the other two, I really like this shape.  

My updated method of making these bats is to print out the wings, rough cut around them and then glue them onto felt (or foam) sheets with glue sticks.  The glue doesn't hold well, so after cutting on the lines the paper peels right off.  Shown is a standard* piece of 9x12 felt.  That's also a common size for foam sheets.  

*Standard when you live in a country that still uses inches.  It's roughly equivalent to 23x30cm.  

The wings from large to extra small vary by 10% in size.  The following two sets of wings can be printed on 8.5x11 paper.  

To assemble, wrap a feather boa around the middle of the bat wings.  How many wraps really depends on the thickness of the boa and how plump you want your bats.  For thick feather boa's I wrap twice for the larger sized wings and once for the smaller.  If I wasn't such a disaster with hot glue, I'd probably use that.  But I am a disaster, so I use Aleene's Fast Grab Tacky Glue.  I have to hold it in for about a minute to set.  

I use a clear beading line, similar to fishing line, to hang them, one on each end.  I string it through the loop created by the boa body. This also helps if there is more than one boa wrap to keep them together, because of this I usually wait until after I do this step to add the eyes.   

The line is clear plastic and slippery.  I'm sure there's probably a fancy knot to securely use it, but I don't know what that is.  Instead I use a small 1mm crimp bead, which just as the name suggests is a small metal bead that you can flatten with a pliers to secure. 

For less floppy wings you can use foam sheets or stiffen felt.  I don't mind floppy wings and my absolute favorite is using textured felt.  

I'm going to hold myself accountable to finishing off a few more batches of bats before the end of the year and then I can consider myself to be sufficiently batty.   So here's two ideas I had that I will not be trying out, but I'll share in case you'd like to make more work for yourself:  Needle felting wool roving into bone ridges on the wings.  Cutting two wings per bat and sandwiching wire or pipe cleaners in-between to make the wings poseable.  

Bah Humbug

Bah humbug is kind of how I felt about Halloween this year, but I did make some effort.  At least the dozen trick or treaters we had made off with a nice, contact free, candy haul because I'm not a scrooge.  And even though I didn't go all out this year, I refuse to put away my decorations until I'm good and ready because they bring joy to my cold black heart.  

I'm slowly working towards a metal punk vibe.  The punk vulture has been around awhile, as has the spiked pumpkin, but the coffin guitar case, newly acquired this year, kind of cinched it.  That was really when the other skeletons started talking about getting a band together.  My frogs aren't done...yet. But at least I managed to finish their hair so they are presentable.  Froggy Rotten is sporting the red mop and Phib Vicious has the green hawk. 

I have a few projects to post about that are pictured and a few just out of view.  This year has been a lot of home improvement projects, but I have been squeaking in some time to knock a few creepy projects off my list.   

And now all the Turkey Day decorations are up...so I guess I'm set until Creepmas.  

 

Pumpkin Spice Orange Cheesecake Cupcakes

So here's another recipe I've bastardized beyond all recognition.  

This is the original recipe for  Pumpkin Spice Bread which makes two loaves.  I've halved the recipe to make 24 muffins.  I left out the nutmeg, because I despise it, and increased the cinnamon a tad, because I have nothing but love for cinnamon.   I used a mix of white and brown sugar instead of just sugar and a mix of vegetable oil (generally I use coconut) and butter instead of just oil. I substitute orange juice instead of water.  

In past years I've made this with an orange cream cheese frosting, as noted in this post about pumpkin truffles.  The pairing, while delicious is too sweet in my opinion.  With frosting I always feel like the amount of powdered sugar needed depends on the consistency desired rather than the taste. 

By substituting cheesecake instead of frosting, I still get all the flavors I love without the overwhelming sweetness and the family agreed these were better. Normally my making two dozen cupcakes implies a party, but this year sucks.  Instead I dropped off a little cupcake love with the neighbors.  

Pumpkin Spice Orange Cheesecake Cupcakes

cupcake ingredients:

3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup butter softened
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup solid pack pumpkin
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda 
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 cup orange juice 

cheesecake ingredients:

8 oz cream cheese, softened 

1/3 cup white sugar

1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp orange extract

zest from one orange (optional)

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.  Beat the cream cheese until smooth.  Add the sugar, egg, extracts and zest and beat until creamy and smooth. Refrigerate until needed.

In a large bowl, beat sugar, oil and butter. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add pumpkin and mix well. Sift dry ingredients together and add to the pumpkin mixture alternately with the orange juice. Spoon batter into 24 prepared muffin cups. 

Spoon in cheesecake mixture. 

Bake for about 20 minutes.  The cheesecake should be set but not brown.  Cool in pans 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack; cool completely.

Pictures can be deceiving, I should have cut this in half to really see. The pumpkin mixture domed so it's not like that's all cheesecake sitting on top, but rather a modest layer coating it.  You could run a knife or toothpick through the batters before baking to marble it.