The earliest reference to googly eyes came out in June 1919, in the artist’s Billy DeBeck’s comic strip titled “Barney Google”. Barney Google was a middle-aged fellow who wore a top hat and suit and had big, googly eyes. As a result, he looked like he was always anxious or panicking. The comic strip was later renamed “Barney Google and Snuffy Smith” and the googly-eyed character made only a few reappearances through the years. He has only been seen two times since 1996. Googly-eyed characters have also appeared sporadically throughout history, such as characters from the BBC program “Bodger and Badger”, the Muppets characters in Sesame Street, Nutty from the funny but deadly Web series Happy Tree Friends, and more. Cable networks like Cartoon Network also periodically introduce googly eyes into their station banners and IDs.
Googly eyes become more popular with their introduction to toys worldwide, mainly because they didn’t require a face to become comical or funny. They’re used to imitate human eyes – but with a twist. The zany movement when these plastic eyes are shaken is enough to bring anyone to tears while laughing. Googly eyes are a perennial favorite across the world in crafts projects, because they add that dash of pizzazz that’s just hard to accomplish with other materials. If you have ever wanted some googly eyes instructions on making new crafts with your kids, then you have come to the right place.
Our googly eyes instructions are easy to follow, detailed, and perfect for different seasons, especially Halloween, where you can create a lot of creature crafts and use them as toys or decorations. What we love about googly eyes is it doesn’t matter what season it is – they are always funny and appropriate, and people (especially kids) appreciate them.
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Googly eye spiders
Our first project for today is googly eye spiders. This project is definitely super easy and is definitely a winner if you have kids because you can make the spiders as big or small as you can. The leg lengths can also be adjusted to fit your preferences, or what you had visualized in mind that the spiders should look like.
For this, you will need the following:
1. Craft pom poms (any size that you want to use)
3. Pairs of googly eyes
4. Some crafting glue
This is going to be really super simple because the craft pompoms are already ‘done’ on their own, you just have to decide if you want one-piece spiders or three-segment spiders.
One-piece spiders
The one-piece spiders are more cartoonish and they will likely look like the spiders you see on Disney or other shows. If you think you are fine with single-piece spiders, all you need to do is to attach the pipe cleaners and the googly eyes and you are done.
The pipe cleaners need to be cut to the exact lengths that will be attached to the spiders. If you want to bend them a little, that’s fine, but make sure that the bending points are equal with the legs so they will look nice.
Just use your crafting glue to attach them to the sides of the pompoms. The googly eyes go up next. Place them on top of the pompoms, on the sides, to make them look comical.
Three-segment spiders
Now let’s say that you want a more realistic looking spider. Spiders have three segments, so what you can do is to take a smaller pompom for the head, followed by another segment, and then the final segment would be the largest pompom.
Attaching the legs would follow the same process, as well as how you are going to attach the eyes. Be sure to make legs realistic by giving each one a little bend, so the spiders will be able to stand nicely on the tabletop or any other surface where they will be used as toys. Now if they are going to be used for decorative purposes, you use your crafting glue to attach them to some homemade, DIY cotton webs, and as these things will be quite light, they won’t fall off.
Can you make spiders with different colors? Of course, you can. If you can find pompoms that are yellow, purple, or green, feel free to experiment with these. Also, if you want the spiders to look a little off-putting, you can attach not just two, but three or four googly eyes to them to make them even more realistic-looking.
Rocks as pets?!
You read that right. We used to play with rocks as kids, but they have never been as cool as this.
For this project, you will need:
1. smooth rocks (preferably as big as your palm or almost as big as your palm)
2. acrylic paint for crafting projects
3. ornamental items like yarn for hair or fur,
4. googly eyes
5. glitters
6. beads
So this is a very straightforward type of project. Wash the stones first to remove any direct and wipe them down well until they are super smooth. Once they are super smooth, begin painting one side with the design that you want.
The design can be super plain or freaky, depending on your taste. You can design a slime monster with a big mouth or a cute little piggy with pink craft pompoms for ears and a button for the nose. It all depends on what you think would look best.
After painting one side of the stone, let that dry and then pain the other side. The main design should include spaces for the eyes (leave these for the googly eyes) and the mouth. If you do not want to craft anything for the nose, ears, or mouth, then just paint them in.
But then again, the project is definitely more fun if you are going to use different materials like crafting beads, cords, yarn, and strings to make the googly eye creatures more interesting.
Now, when you are done decorating the stones or rocks, you need to spray everything with a sealant so that colors will stay and they won’t rub off surfaces.
Of course, you need to remind your kids not to put them on glass surfaces or throw them about as they can get bonked in the head doing so. If you want your kids to get started on collecting stuff, this would be a doubly good way to do it since they would essentially be collecting stuff that they created themselves.
Painting tips:
- Use a new brush when painting stones and make sure that the paint is as smooth as possible before letting it dry.
- Use items like pompoms and beads for the eyes, ears, and nose. Large buttons can also be used to decorate. You can paint over these items if you want to, too.
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- Dab paint over the “cheeks” of the creatures to give them a nice and friendly glow. While this may not be necessary for creature-type pet rocks, it might be useful when you are creating friendlier faces.
- Paint larger stones or rocks that have more irregular contours if you want to create a more convincing and freaky monster pet rock.
Find our googly eyes for your DIY project
More articles about googly eyes you may interest:
What Does It Mean To Have Googly Eyes?
