Spooky Eyeballs

This was one of those projects.

You know the kind. You see a photo on Pinterest. It looks so cute. The project is cute. The table is cute. The staging is cute. Your mind starts churning.

I could do that.

How would I do that?

I bet it’s really simple.

Maybe it’s not so simple.

This was one of those.

Wonder of all wonders, it is simple. And it is cute.

Some days the craft gods smile down upon you.

All you need are some ping pong balls. . . excuse me, table tennis balls . . . and some permanent markers.

Before you start thinking that I had this all planned out, I had this package of balls in my Halloween stash from the dollar store last year.

I have no idea what I had in mind to make with them, and it doesn’t matter anyway.

Now, they are spooky eyeballs. Simple. And cute.

I forgot . . . you also need a circular sticker or something that you can use to mark a circle on the ball.

Stickers work great, just know that a flat sticker stuck on a round ball will not conform perfectly. Meaning: there’ll be wrinkles in your sticker.

No matter.

Take a colored marker and trace around the sticker.

Just in case you were wondering why I used markers instead of painting these guys? Yeah, well . . . I tried painting them. First.

You be the judge.

Of course you can paint them if you want, but use a paint that will adhere to plastic.

Otherwise you’ll have really icky spooky eyes because the paint will peel off.

Hey, it might be a good look for Halloween.

But look at that eyeball up there. A green Sharpie with a black one for the pupil.

Thank you, craft gods.

The picture on Pinterest had red squiggly veins. I have a red fine tip marker so I made squiggles too.

Definitely more Halloweenish.

Now, here’s where I quit listening to the craft gods and went off on my own.

They told me the eyeballs didn’t need to be more shiny. They were shiny enough, they said.

I didn’t listen.

Know what you get when you put clear nail polish on top of permanent markers?

A spooky eyeball that isn’t so cute anymore.

Kinda borders on grotesque, actually.

But, hey, it might be a look.

If you were wondering how to make grotesque spooky eyeballs for Halloween, now you know how.

Me, I went for the regular ol’ eyeball look in brown, blue and green.

I even got a little creative with my squiggles. Not too much though.

I learned my lesson with the nail polish.

Then all you need is a way to display your cute spooky eyeballs.

A jar. A bottle. Or, if you have a fabulous thrift store like mine, an apothecary jar.

One thing though – don’t put glitter on some pinecones and then put them in your apothecary and expect to get all of the glitter out for Halloween.

Will.not.happen.

Enter spanish moss, stage right.

If one looks good, then five or six might look even better.

As far as display goes, spooky eyeballs in thrift store apothecary jars look perfectly natural next to glittered skulls on a bookshelf.

They’re even fun in black and white.

Go make some of these. I’m not kidding. Then you can do the craft-gods-don’t-hate-me-happy-dance too.

p.s. Tomorrow, bright and early, I have a gigantic surprise for you. I can’t wait, I have to tell you. Over ONE HUNDRED Halloween DIYs!

Talk about “eeek”!

Colleen

about Colleen

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