This is fun and entertaining, as it includes candy, and is pretty simple to make. I am 10 years old, and I came up with this idea when my mom told me we need some activity’s for my brother’s birthday which just so happens to be on Halloween. It took about 20 seconds to come up with this idea. I thought it would be a good idea to enter this in an instructables contest. Normally it takes awhile to make an instructable, but take my word, this will take less than an hour, if you have all of the supplies! Have fun making this!

Supplies

2 pieces of construction paper, black, and a color of your choice; Toilet paper roll; black acrylic paint; candy, candy corn works best, as it is Halloween candy...; tissue paper, black, (I used silver) and a color of your choice; glue; hot glue; googly eyes or more construction paper, white and black; sharpie (optional)

Step 1: Make the Bat Ear Shape

This step is kind of hard to describe, so the pictures will help. On the toilet roll, place your index finger on one side of the roll. Push slightly hard, but not to much that the ear shape is not to pointy. Do not worry about the roll expanding, because you will later glue it.

Step 2: Paint

For this step you will need some black acrylic paint. I used about a teaspoon (not that I measured it that way...). You will grab a paintbrush of any size, but bigger will work better, as you will need to paint the whole outermost of the toilet roll. Do exactly that. Set aside 5-10 minutes while the paint dries.

Step 3: Glue

For this step, it is up to you. You can chose whether you want to use just plain glue or hot glue/gorilla glue. I used staples glue, but I find that it works better if you use a hot glue gun, as it dries within 5 minutes unlike the staples glue.

Step 4: The Wings

You will need black construction paper to do the wings. I recommend you use a pen or pencil to draw a wing, as you can see in the first photo. If you do that, it is a lot easier to do if you fold the black paper in half crosswise before you draw one wing. Cut the wings out. Unfold the paper. Get hot glue or a glue stick (hot glue sticks better) and glue the wings to one side of the toilet roll. See the resemblance of a bat?

Step 5: The Tissue Paper and Candy

After the glue is dry, get a one to two foot long piece of tissue paper. Fold it so that one end is the form of a semi-circle, as shown in the picture, and the other end is flat. Put three to six pieces of any candy (I used candy corn as it gives this project a “Hallweeny” spirit) into the semi-circle end. Twist the flat end, and tie a ribbon around the twisted end so that it is currently tied together. To make it easier to do that, you might want to hold the flat end up, so that the semi-circle end is left dangling. Fold the tissue paper over, so the candy is completely wrapped in a ball of tissue paper. Stuff the end with the candy (the semi-circle end) into the bat.

Step 6: The Eyes and Smile

You can use googly eyes, or really anything. I used some foil paper and a marker. If you are using googly eyes, just put them on. If you are using my method, cut the paper to the size you want (it should probably be pretty small). Use a hot glue gun to glue the paper to the bat. Then use a sharpie or any black marker to draw a dot in the center of the paper. You can draw the dot anywhere on the paper to give it a wacky look. Now the smile (or if you are looking for a creepy look) is optional. Cut a thin line of the foil paper and use hot glue in the form of the mouth you want on the bat. Carefully, put the thin line of paper on top of the glue.

Step 7: Size to Perfection

Almost there! Using scissors, cut the tissue paper holding the candy so that it completely fits in the toilet paper roll. You will want to fold the wings over the toilet roll so that it will fit in the next step. Not letting go of the folded wings, place the roll on a piece of large tissue paper, any color. Roll it up so that it should look like the 3rd photo.

Step 8: The Final Touches

After you have rolled up the paper around the bat, tie a three inch ribbon around, so that it is tightly sealed. You should now have a popper. What makes this so fun, is that you can not tell it is a bat, until you pop it open!