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Hands Occupied

Contemporary yarn crafts by Heidi Gustad. Knitting, crochet, latch hook and macrame.

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How-to: Spooky Eyeball Garland

September 26, 2013 5 Comments

How-to: Spooky Eyeball Garland - Hands Occupied

How much fun is this garland, you guys?! I had originally planned to make an eyeball garland with painted ping pong balls for Halloween this year. Then I was perusing the seasonal section at the party store last week, and they totally had plastic eyeball favors for sale! What luck! The premade eyeballs are super cute on this garland, and the colorful beads, which I happened to have on hand, smack just a little bit of Dia de los Muertos. I just love projects that come together so adorably and serendipitously like this!

Supplies

plastic eyeballs (or painted ping pong balls)
shiny beads
heavy duty thread
small nail
mallet/hammer
pliers
scissors
needles in several sizes, including one longer than the widest part of your eyeballs

How-to: Spooky Eyeball Garland - Hands Occupied

Directions

The vast majority of the time that goes into this project is converting your eyeballs basically into giant beads. Working from the thickest to the thinnest nail/needle, pound two holes into each eyeball straight across from each other. I eyeballed the second hole’s location on each, and all but a couple miraculously became successful beads on the first try.

How-to: Spooky Eyeball Garland - Hands Occupied

If your needle or nails get stuck in the eye, use a pair of pliers to pull them out. In the course of pounding two holes into 80 eyeballs, only two of them split in half, and not a single one cracked. You can be pretty aggressive when pounding holes into these.

How-to: Spooky Eyeball Garland - Hands Occupied

After you hammer the two holes, use the needle that’s longer than your eyeball to ensure the holes are aligned. Keep hammering until all of the eyeballs you’ll need are beadified.

How-to: Spooky Eyeball Garland - Hands Occupied

Using the long needle, alternate threading an eyeball and several beads onto a long piece of heavy duty thread to form the garland. Secure both ends with good knots, hang and enjoy!

How-to: Spooky Eyeball Garland - Hands Occupied

On a tangential note…

For fun I decided to take some photobooth style pics with my crazy garland and the two eyeballs I managed to pop in half when I was turning the rest of them into beads. I hadn’t intended to do more than text the shots to my husband when he was in meetings, but they’re super glorious (if a bit out of focus). Full disclosure, the only people home when I took these were me and my dogs.

How-to: Spooky Eyeball Garland - Hands Occupied

This post was not actually brought to you by any party store. 

—

PS:

You know what I just realized? (I promise I’m not making this up for the sake of internet!) I’m pretty sure these eyeballs exist to mostly be used for spoOOo-ooh-ky beer pong. This is JUST LIKE the time I thought the dudes at the midnight showing of Pink Floyd’s The Wall were drinking pop. “Why would they bring Jones Soda to the movies? The glass bottles are so loud!” True story.

Filed Under: Halloween, How-to, Parties Tagged With: beads, beer pong, decor, eyeball garland, festive, garland, halloween craft, halloween crafts, parties, ping pong balls

About Heidi

Heidi Gustad is a craft book author & content creator in love with primary colors & vintage vibes. She specializes in knitting, crochet, latch hook and macramé, and her first book, Latch Hook: 12 Projects for the Modern Maker, is out now!

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Comments

  1. thezenofmaking

    September 26, 2013 at 11:03 am

    So, next time we’re in the same place, you’re bringing these for a game of crafty beer pong, right? (Also a true story: Despite having attended a Big 10 school, I’ve still never played beer pong.)

    Reply
    • Heidi

      September 26, 2013 at 3:48 pm

      Totally! What would be the craft equivalent of a red Solo cup for shooting into?

      PS: I played beer pong like once at MSU. It was fine, but I was bad at it. Like awful bad.

      Reply
  2. Charlene

    October 5, 2013 at 9:06 pm

    Hey! I type in “eyeball garland” into a google image search and here I am. Love the colorful beads. Thanks for the link to the pre-made eyeballs and your great idea. I think I will try a small drill for the holes.

    Reply
  3. doro von Hand zu Hand

    October 18, 2013 at 3:51 am

    a really cool garland!

    I linked to your tutorial on my blog – thanks for sharing!

    ♥, doro von Hand zu Hand

    Reply
    • Heidi

      October 18, 2013 at 2:47 pm

      Thanks for sharing it on your blog!

      Reply

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Heidi Gustad from Hands Occupied / Craft Book Author and Knitting, Crochet, Latch Hook and Macrame Designer

Hi! I’m Heidi, an author, yarn craft designer and content creator specializing in knitting, crochet, latch hook & macrame. My work unapologetically features primary colors and vintage-meets-modern style. My first book, Latch Hook: 12 Projects for the Modern Maker, is now available!

Professionally I’m most known for: advanced intarsia knitting design & modern latch hook design.

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A new YouTube tutorial is live today covering how A new YouTube tutorial is live today covering how to knit the Little Butterfly Stitch (aka Bowknot Stitch). It adds so much cute character to simple stockinette. Only a little funky to knit, and it packs a huge visual punch! 🦋 
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Find the video & written stitch pattern on the blog and YouTube, links are in bio. 
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Yarn: @kelbournewoolens Germantown in Baby Blue via @knit_picks. Needles: Prism Interchangeables, also from Knit Picks. 
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Pictured: a light blue swatch of Little Butterfly Stitch knitting on a pink background. A skein of yarn and a few stitches of knitting are nearby.
“You’re telling me words can be pronounced in “You’re telling me words can be pronounced in different ways and mean the same things?!” 👀 Posting this here, just to make it clear: when anyone says skayne, skeen, or skyne, it can be safely assumed we’re talking about a bundle o’ yarn,  a SKEIN. It’s not necessary to shame someone for using a word that is known to have MULTIPLE common pronunciations. 🧶
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Can you plz comment sharing how you say SKEIN and where you learned it? The OED happens to say SKAYNE, but it’s not a personal attack if someone says SKEEN and you say SKYNE or even Saskatoon. I’m legitimately curious. We don’t all knit or crochet the same way, and craft evolves a bit like language - it is passed on. There is so much value in having conversations about & embracing these variations! ✌🏻
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#handsoccupied #heidigustad #skein #yarn #yarncraft #knit #crochet #yarnaddict #knitincolor #soldotnacrop #language #englishisweird #oed #oxfordenglishdictionary
Sometimes my weekend projects involve hair rather Sometimes my weekend projects involve hair rather than yarn. Here’s the latest mediocre-but-improving result of my slow quest to learn to set vintage inspired curls. 💇🏼‍♀️ I’m hoping to be able to wash my hair less using a regular vintage set, but we’ll see if it ends up being practical. 😆 Hair frustrates me so much more than crafts! 
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Do you also style your hair using vintage methods? If you have any tips for vintage hair styling or good resources to share, please do!
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Pictured: A medium sized, brown, senior dog asleep on a green bed. For some reason a donut ball of navy wool yarn sits on his head.
The first stitch tutorial of the new year is live The first stitch tutorial of the new year is live on YouTube! Diamond Brocade is a great knit+purl only stitch for beginners or anyone wanting a classic look for their knitting project. Find the video with a written stitch pattern on the blog or head directly to the video on YouTube. Both are linked in bio. ✌🏻 
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