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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 Jack Sparrow’s mom
“I told my neighbor her house was the best, now I’ll have to take it back!” – Mario’s Mom
“This house is awesome, I want to adopt you!” – Grim Reaper
Step 1The inspiration
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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.
I only created one large monster. I'll set it out on the deck for Halloween, but right now it stands behind the patio door.
For the "follow you" effect to work the pupils need to look like circles from what ever angle they are viewed from. When using a half dome for the pupils like I did some of the effect is lost.
Either a black circle, or a black ball at the back is what is needed. More like the smaller eyes as the instructable describes. I think a circle of black felt glued to the back would work best and be easier or a ping pong ball painted black would work best.
Hint: The matter the black paint the better.
Jim
- Cut out the eye outlines from the front of the box, and glue white paper inside that box.
- Cut out eye outlines from the back of the box, paste white paper with pupils drawn for the eye outlines in the back of the box.
- Glue the box together (or tape), and add the lights coming into the box through the cardboard you have the box mounted to.
Is that it? The photos here look like the eye is not lit from within but rather like it's flat, the pupil drawn onto the white paper pasted inside the front of the box, so I just wanted to double check that. Thanks !!
Let's see if I can clarify a bit...
- Cut out the eye outlines from the front of the box, and glue white paper inside the front of the box.
- Don't cut holes inthe back of the box. Paste white paper with pupils drawn in the back of the box.
- Glue the box together (or tape), and add the lights coming into the box through the cardboard you have the box mounted to.
The eye is lit from within the box, the pupil is inside the back of the box.
I hope this helps!
I like the additional images that big beast with the horns is very impressive. A little late for Halloween this year, but next year...