Following-eye Halloween Display
Introduction: Following-eye Halloween Display
The glowing eyes follow you as you walk down the street. A spooky effect that is cheap and easy to make! Put one in every window for a really creepy effect! Made from cereal boxes, cardboard, and paper mache.
Some of the rave reviews I got from popular celebrities:
“Your house is creepy!” - Spiderman
“Great job, as usual your house looks fantastic!” – Pirate <PERSON> mom
“I told my neighbor her house was the best, now I’ll have to take it back!” – <PERSON>’s Mom
“This house is awesome, I want to adopt you!” – Grim Reaper
Step 1: The Inspiration
The idea for this Halloween display came from this decorative mask. The eyes follow you as you walk around the room. I studied this to learn how the effect works and how to enlarge it to a window-sized display. The front of each eye is a spherical shape with an eye shaped cutout. The pupil is on the back of a cavity behind the eye. The pupils are dome shaped so that they appear circular from all angles. The center of the pupil's dome shape is located about at the center of the spherical shape of the front part of the eye. This makes the pupil appear to be oriented directly at you from all angles.
The paper mache eyes in this instructable are giant-sized replicas of the eyes in this mask. The cereal box eyes are a common craft project I think, I have heard of them being made from shoe boxes.
Step 2: Materials
You need:
Large pieces of cardboard, big enough to fit in the windows. Heavy cardboard is better.
Black paint. I used tempura paint, the kind used in kids art classes, from an art store ($7 for 900 ml, I used about half the bottle for 4 window displays), it is cheap, easy to clean up, and dries to a flat black finish. That's the only thing I had to buy to make my display.
Christmas lights (LED lights strongly recommended because they don't get hot - the materials are very flammable!). 644
White is best, but other colors will work too. Multi-colored strings are probably not going to work well.
White paper.
White glue.
A black marker.
Scissors.
A sharp knife.
A drill.
For the smaller eyes:
Several cereal boxes. 3 or 4 for each window you want to do.
Colored paper. I used construction paper.
Tape. Packing tape works well.
For the larger eyes:
Newspapers (one large newspaper should do).
Flour and salt for the paper mache paste.
1 large (13") and 1 medium (9") mixing bowl.
1 softball
1 large plastic ice cream container
Plastic food wrap. Glad Cling Wrap worked well, it is a heavier grade plastic and actually not very sticky which is good because the purpose is to help release the paper mache from the molds.
Allow about 2 weeks to make everything, there are several steps where you need to let things dry overnight.
Step 3: Cereal Box Eyes - Cut the Eyes
The eyes made from cereal boxes are easy to make, so you can make several for each window. The large paper mache eyes take longer to make but give a better effect when viewed from the street. I will start with how to make the cereal box eyes.
Draw eye shapes on the front of the cereal box. Cut out the shape with a sharp knife.
If the box is more than 1-1/2" thick, cut the box in half, making sure the sides of the back half are about 1-1/4" to 1-1/2" wide. In the picture, the sides of this box are cut a bit too narrow.
Step 4: Cereal Box Eyes - Glue on Paper
Take a sheet of white paper (it can be scrap paper already printed, as in the picture). Cut it to fit inside the front of the cereal box. It doesn't matter if it fits exactly.
Place the paper under the front of the cereal box and trace the eye shape onto the paper. If already printed one side, place the printed side up as shown.
Cut out the eye shapes, about 1/4" outside the lines.
Glue the paper to the inside of the box front.
The purpose of this paper is to increase the reflectivity of the inside of the box, so the eyes glow brighter.
Step 5: Cereal Box Eyes - Draw Pupils
Cut a piece of white or colored paper to fit inside the back side of the box. I used pale colors, but after seeing the completed display I think some darker colors would work well too. 286