DIY Eyeball Accessories

Hey guys! Are you ready for Halloween tomorrow? As promised from my previous blog post, I mentioned that I would be posting a second blog post on things that you could do with the eyeball decorations. If you guys have not seen my previous blog post on how to make the eyeballs alone, you can click here and check that out before proceeding on with the projects in this post. Also, if you are into cute and creepy accessories, then this blog post might just be up your alley!

DIY Eyeball Bat Wing Hair Clip ♥

For the first project, we're going to be making an eyeball-bat hair clip and for this, you will be needing an eyeball (Eyeball tutorial), a hot glue gun, felt, and fabric paint.

1. First cut out two felt bat-wings.
2. Hot glue the two felt pieces together. Gluing two pieces of felt together should help the wings keep their shape and prevent them from flapping around. If you're still worried about the wings losing their shape, you can even glue a third piece of felt to the wings.
3.  Paint on the wing design. It's best to use fabric paint because it's glossy and stands out against the matte felt surface. It's okay to skip this step if you do not have any kind of paint on hand. If you're skilled enough with needle work, you could even embroider the wing design on!
4. Glue on your eyeball!

Glue on the hair clip to the back of the wings, and you're finito! 

DIY Eyeball Earrings ♥

For this project, you will need two small eyeballs (Eyeball tutorial), a hot glue gun or a strong glue, and a pair of earring bases or an old pair of small stud earrings. The instructions are very simple. All you need to do is glue the earring base or stud earring to the eyeball.

If you don't have earring bases on hand, I believe that the above step only works if you are using any type of clay that when dried, will become semi-hard and still soft enough to create a hole. If you are working with a harder clay, I suggest that you create a small hole just large enough for the stud before the clay dries and hardens. Otherwise, if you are using an earring base, you can go ahead and glue it to the back of the eyeball.

Now you've got a pair of cute eyeball earrings ♥ Besides the above two examples that I've given you, there are numerous other things that you can do with the eyeball decorations. Here are a few examples pictured below: 

You can glue them to bows and wear them in your hair, or around your neck.

 For pretty much all of these projects, it might be wise to use a clay that is lightweight. If you were to use a clay that dried solid (e.g. polymer clay), it would be much more dense and that means it would be heavier, which may not be the best idea if you plan on making large hair clips or earrings. I just wanted to warn you guys that your finished projects may be a little bit heavy.

Overall, I think that the eyeball decoration is very versatile and can be used to embellish pretty much anything. The projects and ideas that I provided you guys with were just a few examples of what you can do with the eyeballs. I feel that they might also look nice if you strung them up to be a garland or if you stuck them to the walls or on a jewelry box. If it were up to me, I would probably stick them all over the house! Personally, I don't believe that these accessories should strictly be used during Halloween because that is such a waste and besides, these eyeball accessories are too cute to not wear everyday.

Would you guys go out wearing these eyeball accessories? Leave your comments and questions below!

As always, thanks so much for taking the time to check out my blog!  

Until next time~♥

DIY Eyeball Embellishment

Hey guys! It's been a while since I last posted, but I really wanted to post something since Halloween is this Friday. Now, not all of us are going to be dressing up unfortunately, but there are ways in which you can still get into the Halloween spirit! With that being said, I'm going to be showing you how to make this last minute eyeball embellishment that you can use for pretty much anything!

Here, I'm using leftover white paper-clay that I bought for 1.50 from Daiso (Japanese dollar store). You can use any type of clay you have lying around the house or any kind you can find in stores. I personally like to use paperclay because it is lightweight, it dries into this semi-hard foam like material, and you can still work with the clay even after it's dried by adding a little water to it. As for the measuring spoons, if you don't have any that are half dome shaped, you could always hand-shape the little eyeballs.

Start by getting a small amount of clay, enough to fit exactly into the spoon(s). It's really up to you how big you want to make your eyeballs. For mine, I wanted eyeballs for varying sizes so I used the 1tbs, 1tsp, 1/2tsp, and the 1/4tsp. You really want to pack the clay into the spoon so that you don't end up with any cracks in your clay eyeball as shown above.

After packing the clay into the spoon, if you're using air dry clay or paper clay like me, let them sit for a while. I let mine sit for roughly one 30minutes-1hour checking on them often to see if the surface has dried. I've tried using a hairdryer to speed up the process a little bit. If you clay is a little more solid, then you can go ahead and skip this step.

Getting the clay out is going to be the hard part. The clay will not have fully solidified yet, but the exposed flat surface should have hardened enough so that when you poke at it, it doesn't give in to the pressure. Grab a blunt and flat object, I'm using an exact-o knife, and stick it into the clay at a slight angle as if you are only trying to dig out the parts of the clay that have solidified. Carefully lift your tool up to remove the clay piece.

Don't worry if the back of the eye doesn't look perfect. If the surface of the eye looks a little cracked, depending on the type of clay you are using, you may or may not be able to smooth out the surface. 

 

Now, let the eye balls sit for a couple for hours, checking on them often to see of they've dried. Once you feel that they've dried enough for you to handle them, it's time to start adding the details! 

1. Start by painting or drawing on a circle in the color that you want the iris to be.  
2. Grab black and paint or draw in a smaller circle in the middle of the iris, this will become the pupil.  
3. Grab a tooth pick and dip the end of the pick into some white paint or nail polish and just slightly dab it onto the pupil. This gives the eyes a little more dimension and keeps them from looking so dead, unless you want them to look that way. 
4. At this point you're done! You can go on to add in any additional details you want. You could add in some veins for up the "creep-factor. 

Overall, even if it's not Halloween, I would say that you can stick these eyeballs on anything you want and it would still look cute. Although it's VERY last minute, I'm going to be posting a second blog post tomorrow about ways in which you can use these eyeball embellishments.

 What do you think of these eyeball decorations? How would you use them? Leave your comments below, along with any questions you may have.  

As always, thanks so much for taking the time to check out my blog!  

Until next time~


UPDATE: if you guys are interested in creating some cute and creepy eyeball accessories, check out this blog post right HERE. 

 

DIY Decoden Picture Frame

Hey guys!

It was my friend’s birthday a few days ago, and because handmade presents are a little more meaningful, I thought it’d be a good idea to make a present, and an even better idea to blog about the whole process. With that being said, I will be showing you guys how I made this decoden picture frame.

If you’re not too familiar with decoden (デコデン), you can check out this short blog post about it here from Lovelyish, a New York based blog team. Overall, or in short, decoden is a Japanese trend where one will decorate their belongings, usually cell phone cases, with fake whipping cream and an assortment of trinkets, as can be seen from my decoden-ed frame. This has becoming an increasingly popular trend that grabbed my attention with its quirkiness. I just had to share it with you guys.

 

What you will be needing for this project will be a picture frame and an assortment of trinkets. I used random buttons, beads and other little figures that I made from paperclay, but you can use anything you want. I originally wanted to use some cute Japanese food shaped erasers, but sadly, I had forgotten about them.

For the faux whipped cream, you will be needing some adhesive caulking, piping tips, and tape. Caulk doesn't seem to cost too much and can be found in most hardware stores (This tube was $1.99). As for the piping tips, I purchased a set of 3 metal tips and 8 plastic tips from Daiso (Japanese dollar store) for $1.50 per set, but you can also find piping tips from craft stores like Michaels and even some grocery stores. If you are unable to get a hold of piping tips, that's okay. There are always alternatives, and I will be going into more about that later on in this post.

You can skip this step you you don't feel the need to paint your frame. First, remove the frame backing along with the piece of glass and leave the frame alone for at least 30 minutes to let it dry after the first coat of paint and keep applying as needed.

Next, to get your tube of caulking ready, start by removing the cap and cutting the tip of the tube off if you are using an unopened tube of caulking. Then place the piping top over the tip of the tube and tape it down to make sure it stays put.

When you begin piping the caulking onto your frame, make sure you're doing it in a well ventilated area because the fumes from the caulk may be harmful. Also, make sure that you try to get any large air bubbles out from the tube of caulk before piping it out because the air bubble may create a burst of air that will form a hole in your whipped cream, which can be seen in the picture below (on the left side of the frame).
ALTERNATIVE: If you don't have piping tips, you can just squeeze the caulk straight from the bottle onto the frame. Using a toothpick, swirl the caulk around in circular motions. This makes the caulking look like real whipped cream. Practicing this or your piping on a separate piece of plastic is also a good idea so you can get a feel for how your faux whipped cream may look on the frame.

Don't worry if your whipped cream doesn't look perfect, you're going to be cover the frame in trinkets later on, so that will hide any mistakes.

Here's the best part! Time to decorate your heart out on this frame!

After you've finished decorating your frame, leave it alone to let the caulk set and dry. Different brands of caulk may have different drying times. For DAP's Kwik Seal adhesive caulk, I let the frame sit for a couple of days just to make sure that it dried completely.

After the frame has dried, place the piece of glass, your picture, and the frame backing back onto the frame and your left with a fun and quirky picture frame! ♥

Decoden may seem a bit over-the-top; however, I believe that this is a great way of materializing your own self-expression into your personal belongings. Plus, these are super cute and easily customizable, which make them great gifts! The term decoden (デコデン) is coined from mashing two words together to mean phone decoration. "Deco," phonetically short for decoration and "den," short for the Japanese word denwa (phone). But, of course, you are not only limited to decorating phone cases; you can essentially decorate anything you want. 

What do you guys think of decoden? Do you think it's fun and quirky? Maybe too tacky? Leave your comments below! I'd also love to see any of your decoden creations if you chose to try this out! 

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog! ♥

Until next time~