Faux metal moth garland DIY for Halloween.

Dollar Tree Tile Crafts (Halloween Moth Garland DIY)

If you’ve been itching to use those Dollar Tree tiles for crafting, then I’ve got just the thing for you…Halloween moth garland that’s made to look like metal!

As I was browsing Halloween decorations, I saw this neat “industrial look” iron moth garland last year on the Anthropology website. I couldn’t wait to use it for inspiration for a Halloween garland DIY project.

Enter the Dollar Tree faux metal tiles.

I’d seen quite a few Dollar Tree tile crafts on Pinterest, but none that use them for Halloween garland just yet.

So, I couldn’t wait to try them out for one of this year’s Halloween DIY projects.

Now let’s get to making this “industrial looking” spooky Halloween moth garland with a few simple supplies hopefully some of which you already have on hand!

Supplies for DIY Halloween Moth Garland

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Supplies including Dollar Tree tiles, paint, floral wire, glue gun, scissors, expo marker and free printable.
  • Dollar Tree Tiles (2) – Dollar Tree
  • Floral Wire – Amazon
  • Black Craft Paint – Walmart
  • Chippy Paintbrush – Walmart
  • Glue Gun – Amazon or Walmart
  • Scissors – Amazon
  • Expo Dry Erase Marker
  • Free Printable (below)

Print Out Free Printable and Cut Out Three Moths

First, print out the three moths. These are in color, but I selected black and white option on my printer to save my colored ink.

FREE MOTH PRINTABLE

I used card stock so that it was a little sturdier for tracing the moths onto the tiles.

Three moths of varying sizes cut out of cardstock paper.

Trace the Moths onto the Dollar Tree Tile

Now it’s time to trace the moths onto the tile. For every two tracings, you’ll get one moth since you’ll be butting them up against each other when you glue them.

First, I’m taking you through the process of making one moth, and then I’ll let you know how many I made from each tile. In the end, I used two tiles to make this faux metal Halloween garland.

I started by using the largest moth cut-out shown below. Using a dry erase expo marker trace two moths onto the cloverleaf shape on the tile.

Trace the largest moth cut-out onto the decorative tile inside the cloverleaf shape.

Trace two of the largest moths onto the cloverleaf shape on the tile.

Two moths traced onto the cloverleaf shape on Dollar Tree tile using an expo marker.

Cut Out and Paint the Dollar Store Tile Moths

Using a good pair of scissors, cut out both the traced moths from the tile. You can then easily rub the dry erase marker off with your finger.

Moth cut out from the Dollar Tree tile.

Paint the moths using your black craft paint and cheap chippy paintbrush.

Use a dry brush technique. Dip your paintbrush into the black paint, and then blot most of the paint off onto a paper towel.

Then blot it onto the moths with the end of your brush. You want some of the grey to show through to give it a metallic appearance.

Paint the faux metal moths with black paint using a dry brush technique.
After blotting most of the black paint onto the paper towel, gently blot the black paint onto the moths.

Two tile moths painted black with some grey showing through.

Hot Glue the Moths onto the Floral Wire

Get that glue gun heated up and take out the floral wire and two moth cut-outs.

Brown floral wire and two painted moth cut outs.

Place a line of glue along the center of the unpainted side of one moth cut-out.

Just a quick note, that you’ll be attaching some of them to your floral wire differently so that they are going different directions. I’ll explain that later in the post.

Line of glue placed along the middle of the unpainted side of the moth cut-out.

Lay the floral wire over the line of hot glue.

Lay the wire over the line of hot glue.

Place the other moth cut-out over the hot glue and floral wire sealing them together. Line them up as best you can.

Then, using a line of hot glue, glue the outer edge of the wings on both sides.

Place the other moth cut-out onto the hot glue and wire sealing the pieces together.

Glue the outer edges of the wings on the inside sealing the moth cut-outs together.

Trim around the edge of the moth as needed to remove any white inside parts that are peaking through. The moths won’t line up exactly, so here’s where you can correct that. 🙂

Use the scissors to trim around the edge of the moth.

Trim away any white inside parts that are showing if the moths don't line up exactly.

Finished metallic moth attached to the floral wire.

Create the Remaining Moths and Attach to Floral Wire

Now, you’ll create the rest of your moths for the garland.

On the first tile, I ended up making four of the largest moths on the cloverleaf shapes as shown below where the empty shapes are.

Then I made 2 of the medium moths (as seen traced on the outer edges) and one of the small moths (seen in the middle of the tile).

Remember two moth cut-outs equals one whole moth.

Dollar Tree tile with moth shapes cut out of it.

Four large moths, two medium moths and one small moth.

On the second tile, I ended up making 1 large moth, 3 medium moths and 3 small moths. You can see them traced on the tile below.

Second tile with moths traced with expo marker over the designs.

One large moth, three medium moths and three small moths made from second tile.

Paint the rest of the moths just like in the first example.

Complete Garland by Attaching Moths to Floral Wire

I wanted to vary the way the moths were “flying” on the garland. Bend a loop in the floral wire and then hot glue it between two moth cut-outs.

Bend wire in a loop and then hot glue it between two moth cut-outs.

This is the smallest moth.

Metallic moth added to garland by gluing loop between two cut-outs.

Then, glue the medium moth as shown in the first example (no loop).

Two moths glued to the floral wire to make garland.

Now glue the last and largest moth using a loop. Repeat the pattern…small, medium, large gluing all the moths to the garland.

Three moths of varying sizes glued to floral wire to make garland.

This is how it’s looking with all the moths glued to the floral wire. As you can see, it follows the pattern loop, no loop, loop…loop, no loop, loop. Until all the moths are glued onto the floral wire.

Completed moth Halloween garland using Dollar Tree tiles.

All that’s left to do is to hang these guys up!

DIY moth garland hanging on a chalkboard with Happy Halloween written on it.

Dollar Tree Tile Craft Halloween Garland DIY

So, what do you think of this garland? Kind of quirky, right?

The faux metal look was a hit for me and gives this moth garland an “industrial look”

You can vary the moth shapes any way that you prefer. You could even make all the same size moths for your garland.

Another idea is to use gorilla putty to place them flying up a wall. And I may just have to try that out!

I feel like the putty would probably take the paint off though so keep that in mind. Or you could just paint one side! Oh, the possibilities! 😉

Leave me a comment with any questions, and, as always, thanks so much for reading!

Oh, and one more thing! Be sure to have a fun and spooky Halloween!

Now it’s time to stop at the Dollar Tree and grab a few tiles to make this unique looking moth garland craft idea!

Pin me on Pinterest to save this idea!

Faux metal moth garland Halloween DIY made with Dollar Tree tiles.

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