There’s something about eyes that just gets under your skin. A pumpkin is cute, a ghost is fun, but a pair of eyes staring at you from the bushes? That’s the stuff that makes people walk a little faster past your house.
And honestly, eye decorations are some of the easiest Halloween projects out there. Most of them are just ping pong balls, paint, googly eyes and a bit of glue.
The problem is that Halloween sneaks up on you. One day it’s September, and the next you’re standing in a store aisle looking at overpriced plastic skeletons.
So here’s a list of eye ideas you can make at home, mostly with cheap stuff. Some are creepy, some are goofy, and a few are perfect for doing with the kids on a Saturday.
I’ve split them into four groups. Yard and porch eyes, front door and window eyes, eyes for your table and mantel, and pumpkins and kid crafts.
You don’t need to do all thirteen. Even two or three of these around the house will make it feel like the whole place is watching.
A Few Things to Grab Before You Start
The basics for almost every idea here are simple. Ping pong balls, white and black acrylic paint, a thin red paint or marker for veins, and a big bag of googly eyes in mixed sizes.
Add a hot glue gun or strong craft glue, some fishing line or clear thread, and a pack of battery tea lights or small LED lights. That covers most of the list.
If anything is going outside, get a clear outdoor sealer too. Rain and dew wreck painted eyes pretty fast otherwise.
One safety note for families. Googly eyes and small plastic eyeballs are a choking hazard for little kids, so keep them up high if you have toddlers or a curious dog.
Creepy Eyes for Your Yard and Porch
1. Glowing Bush Eyes Using LED Lights
Picture walking up to a house at night and seeing two glowing eyes blink at you from the hedge. That’s the whole idea here, and it’s seriously creepy for how easy it is.
Grab small battery LED lights or glow sticks and tuck them deep inside a bush in pairs. Space each pair about as far apart as real eyes would be, maybe two or three inches.
Red looks evil, green looks ghostly, and yellow looks like some wild animal is watching. Use a mix of colors in different bushes so it feels like there’s more than one thing out there.
Lights with a slow blink or flicker setting are even better. When the eyes go dark for a second and then open again, people really jump.
You can make simple eye shapes by cutting two almond-shaped holes in a cardboard tube, sliding a glow stick inside and hiding it in the leaves. Only the eye holes glow, which is so much spookier.
Hold them in place with zip ties or a twist of wire so the wind doesn’t knock them out. And if you might get rain, make sure your lights are meant for outdoor use.
Glow sticks only last one night, so I’d suggest LED lights if you want this up all week. Plus you don’t have to go crawling into the bushes every evening.
2. Monster Eye Planters for Your Porch
Your porch plants can get in on Halloween too. Stick a pair of giant googly eyes on a pot, and suddenly that plant is a goofy little monster greeting everyone at the door.
Pick round or chunky pots, because they look more like monster heads. Black, orange or bright green pots work great, and you can paint plain terracotta ones too.
Glue on big googly eyes with a strong outdoor glue. For extra personality, add felt eyelashes, eyebrows or even a little painted mouth with fangs.
Spiky plants make the best monster hair. Think grasses, a spiky succulent or anything wild and messy that sticks up over the eyes.
Want them to glow at night? Paint the eyes with glow-in-the-dark paint, or place a small battery light behind each pot so the eyes catch the light.
Just remember that cheap googly eyes can pop off in the cold or rain. Check them every few days, and keep a glue gun handy for quick fixes.
3. DIY Giant Googly Eyes for Your Yard
These giant googly eyes are big, silly and impossible to miss. A pair of huge eyeballs peeking out from behind a tree is the kind of thing trick-or-treaters talk about.
The base is an inflatable beach ball. You cover it in layers of newspaper strips dipped in a flour and water paste, which is good old papier-mâché, and let it dry hard.
Credit ‐ The KSL Noon Show
The video above is a quick segment on making your own giant googly eyes, so it’s worth a watch before you start. Seeing it done once makes the whole thing feel way less intimidating.
Once your papier-mâché is dry, paint it white all over. Then add a big colored iris, a black pupil, and thin red squiggly veins if you want it bloodshot and gross.
Do at least three or four layers of paper, letting each one dry. Thin shells crack easily, and the drying can take a couple of days, so start early in October.
Attach each eye to a heavy piece of wood or a brick so it doesn’t roll away in the wind. And keep them away from wet grass, because papier-mâché goes soft and saggy when it gets damp.
4. Painted Rock Eyeballs for Garden Paths
Line your garden path with eyeballs and every step up to your door gets a little creepier. Painted rock eyeballs are cheap, simple and they last for years.
Find smooth, round stones, the flatter the better. Wash them, let them dry, and paint each one white or a pale cream.
Then add a bright iris in orange, green or blue, a black pupil in the middle, and a tiny white dot for shine. Thin red veins from the edges toward the iris make them look really bloodshot.
Use paint pens for the small details if your brush feels clumsy. They’re so much easier to control on a bumpy rock.
Make a few really big ones for the start of the path, then smaller ones as people get closer to the door. It feels like the eyes are following them in.
Seal every rock with an outdoor clear coat when you’re done, or the paint will wash off in the first rain. Pack them away after Halloween and they’ll be ready again next year.
These are great for kids to help with, too. Let them paint a few wild ones, and nobody will mind if some eyes are a little crooked.
Eyes for Your Front Door and Windows
5. Creepy Window Silhouette Eye Shapes
From the street, a window full of staring eyes looks absolutely chilling. And it’s mostly just black paper and a light behind it.
Cut eye shapes out of black cardstock, leaving the eyes as holes. Try big round eyes, narrow squinting ones, or slit eyes like a cat, and mix sizes for a crowd of things staring out.
Credit ‐ ericksonar
The video above shows a creepy Halloween window silhouette, which is a great way to see how much a lit window adds. Watch it, then plan which window faces the street.
Tape colored cellophane behind the holes for yellow, red or green glowing eyes. Then stick everything to the glass with removable putty or painter’s tape so you don’t leave marks.
Put a lamp or a string of lights behind the window at night. The room behind should be dark, because that’s what makes the eyes pop.
Place some low, some high, and a couple in a window you don’t normally use. People never know which window is watching them, and that’s half the fun.
6. Eye-Covered Halloween Signs and Boo Boards
A sign that says BOO is fine. A sign that says BOO and has twenty eyeballs staring at you is way better.
Start with a board, a piece of thick cardboard or an old wooden sign. Paint it black or dark gray and write a word like BOO or a short spooky phrase on it.
Then glue on googly eyes all over, in different sizes. Clustering a bunch around the letters looks great, like the whole sign is alive.
For a glowing version like the one in the photo, paint the eyes with glow-in-the-dark paint. They charge up in daylight and glow softly once it gets dark.
Lean it by the front door or hang it on the gate. If it’s outside, seal it, because cardboard and rain really don’t mix.
Big googly eyes are the star here, so don’t skimp on size. Tiny ones get lost from more than a few steps away.
No big board? Glue a few eyes onto a plain black doormat-sized piece of foam board instead. It’s light, cheap and easy to lean against a wall.
7. Spooky Eyeball Wreaths With Googly Eyes
An eyeball wreath on the front door is pure Halloween fun. It’s creepy, kind of funny, and everyone who rings your doorbell will stop to look at it.
Start with a twig or grapevine wreath. Then paint a bunch of ping pong balls white and add colorful irises and black pupils once they’re dry.
Hot glue the eyeballs all over the wreath, mixing sizes and colors. Fill gaps with smaller googly eyes so it looks packed with staring eyes.
Want it extra creepy? Tuck in some fake spider web or black feathers between the eyes. For a sillier look, add bright pom-poms and rainbow colored pupils.
Hang it with a sturdy wreath hook, because it’s heavier than it looks. And if your door gets direct afternoon sun, the hot glue can soften, so press everything down well.
You can make one in an evening while watching a movie. It’s honestly one of the most fun projects on this list.
Eyes for Your Table and Mantel
8. Scary Eyeball Cloche and Terrarium Displays
This one is creepy but kind of fancy. Glass domes and jars filled with eyeballs and moss look like something from a mad scientist’s lab.
Put a layer of moss at the bottom of a glass cloche or a big jar. Then nestle a few plastic or painted ping pong ball eyeballs into the moss.
Add little extras like twigs, a small fake skull or plastic spiders. The more it looks like a weird specimen collection, the better.
Group two or three domes of different heights together on a side table or shelf. A battery candle nearby gives it that spooky, flickering lab glow.
A little green or purple light hidden behind the domes looks amazing. It gives everything that eerie, glowing potion feel.
Use battery candles near the glass, not real flames. Moss and dried twigs catch fire really fast.
If you don’t have a cloche, a big upside-down glass bowl on a plate works just as well. Check the thrift store, too, because they often have great old jars.
9. Eyeball Jars and Vases as Table Centerpieces
For a Halloween party table, eyeball jars are the creepiest centerpiece you can make. Guests will either love it or refuse to sit near it.
Fill clear glass jars or vases with water and drop in plastic eyeballs. Add a few drops of red or green food coloring to make it look gross and murky.
Mix jars of different heights and shapes down the table, and set a few battery candles between them. A red table runner makes the whole thing look extra dramatic.
You can also skip the water and fill jars with eyeballs and fake cobwebs. It’s easier to move, and nothing spills.
Want it to look even more gross? Add a few plastic spiders or rubber worms floating with the eyes. Kids at the party will be poking at it all night.
Food coloring can stain tablecloths and wooden tables, so put a plate or tray under each jar. And pour out the water after the party, before it starts to smell.
10. Eyeball Garlands for Mantels and Doorways
A string of eyeballs hanging across the mantel is creepy and hilarious at the same time. It feels like the fireplace is watching you eat dinner.
Paint ping pong balls or wooden beads to look like eyeballs, with veins and all. Then poke a small hole through each one and thread them onto fishing line or twine.
Hang them at different lengths so they dangle, like in the photo. Mixing in some fake spider web and a few candles on the mantel makes it look really eerie.
Felt eyeballs work too, and they’re softer and safer for a house with kids. Cut circles of white felt, glue on smaller colored circles, and sew or glue them onto a ribbon.
Doorways are a great spot too. Hang the garland across the top of a doorframe so guests have to walk under a row of staring eyes.
Keep the garland well away from real candle flames on the mantel. Plastic and felt both melt or burn quickly, so stick to battery candles here.
Eyeball Pumpkins and Fun Crafts
11. Eyeball Pumpkins (No-Carve and Carved)
Pumpkins with giant eyeballs staring back at you are such a fun twist on the usual jack-o’-lantern. And you don’t even have to carve if you don’t want to.
For no-carve, paint a big eyeball right on the pumpkin’s side. White circle first, then a colorful iris, a black pupil, and some red veins coming in from the edges.
The simpler trick is to hot glue big googly eyes onto small pumpkins. A pile of little pumpkins with mismatched googly eyes on the porch steps looks so silly and cute.
White pumpkins make especially creepy eyeballs, by the way. You barely need to paint the white part, just add the iris, pupil and a few red veins.
If you do want to carve, cut a round hole and push a painted ball into it as the eyeball. Put a light inside and the eye glows from behind.
No-carve pumpkins last much longer, honestly. Carved ones can start going soft in a few days, while painted pumpkins often last for weeks.
Keep pumpkins off wood decks if you can, or put them on a tray. When they start to rot, they leave marks that are a pain to clean.
12. Fun Eyeball Crafts With Kids
Kids love eyeballs. They’re gross, they’re funny, and they’re really easy to make.
Set up a little craft table with felt, pipe cleaners, paper cups, balloons and a huge pile of googly eyes. Then let them turn anything into a monster.
Painted ping pong ball eyeballs are a great start. For glowing ones like in the photo, a grown-up can poke a small hole in a white ball and push a tiny LED light inside. Kids can also blow up white balloons and stick on black paper pupils for floating eyeball balloons.
Put down newspaper or an old tablecloth first. Paint and glitter end up everywhere, I promise.
Paper cups make easy little monsters as well. Paint them, add googly eyes and pipe cleaner arms, and line them up on the windowsill.
Keep the hot glue gun with the grown-ups, and use regular craft glue for little hands. And again, watch the tiny googly eyes around toddlers.
13. Floating Eyeball Ornaments for Trees
Hang eyeballs from a tree and it suddenly looks like something from a haunted forest. It’s one of my favorite outdoor ideas on this list.
Paint ping pong balls or clear plastic ornament balls like bloodshot eyes. Give them different iris colors, so it looks like a bunch of different creatures are staring at you.
Tie clear fishing line to each one and hang them from the branches at different heights. From a distance, the line disappears and the eyes look like they’re just floating.
This works indoors too. Hang them from a bare branch in a vase, or from a small black tree on a side table.
Glow-in-the-dark paint on the irises is a nice trick here. The eyes glow softly in the branches after sunset, even without any extra lights.
Seal them if they’re going outside, and tie them on tight. A windy night can scatter eyeballs all over the yard, and you’ll be finding them in the grass until spring.
How to Make the Eyes Look Scarier at Night
Most of these ideas look fun in the daytime, but the real magic happens after dark. A few small lighting tricks make a big difference.
Keep the light behind or below the eyes, not in front. Light from below makes everything look creepier, and light from behind makes eyes glow instead of just looking painted.
Turn off the porch light, or swap it for a dim orange or purple bulb. Bright white light makes everything look flat, and honestly, kind of friendly.
Place a few eyes at about a grown-up’s eye level. Eyes at your own height feel like someone is really looking at you, which is way more unsettling than eyes down on the ground.
And spread them out. A pair in the bush, a pair in the window, a few on the path, so wherever people look, something is staring back.
That’s pretty much the list
Thirteen spooky eye ideas, and you really don’t need to do them all. Seriously, pick two or three and the whole house will feel like it’s watching.
If you want the biggest scare for the least effort, go with glowing bush eyes. If you’re decorating with kids, start with rock eyeballs or googly-eyed pumpkins. And if you’re throwing a party, the eyeball jars will get everyone talking.
Start early, especially with the giant papier-mâché eyes. Halloween always arrives faster than you think.
So which eyes are going up at your place first?