Eye Balls in Brain Matter Decoration/Prop

One of my favorite times of year is Halloween due to the fun stuff that happens around this time. Haunted Houses, Decorating, and most of all, making something gross. The last reason is why I created this Instructable on how to make eye balls in brain matter. There are only a few items that you need in order to make this decoration and it costs less than $12 to make depending on the materials you already have on hand. You will have excess materials so you can make as many of these eye balls as you want for whatever purpose you will use them for. Have them laying on the floor, served on a platter, on the hood of someone's car, or where ever you want to decorate for Halloween.

Step 1: Materials

There are very few materials that you will need. If you have done any of my other Halloween related Instructables, you may have most of these supplies already.

Materials-

• Spray Insulating Foam (Puddle of Blood)
• 1/2 inch Wooden Balls (Eye Balls)
• Wax Paper
• Paint Brushes (Detail Brushes)
• Light and Dark Red paint (For Blood Puddle)
• White and Black Paint
• Green, Brown, or Blue Paint (For the Iris)
• Tooth Picks

Step 2: Creating the Puddle

The first thing you need to do is lay your wax paper on a flat surface. Take your spray foam and spray a very thin layer onto the wax paper. The spray foam will expand two to three times its original size so be careful or else you will need to remove some. Then take your wooden balls and stick them into the layer of foam that you created. Set them anyway you want them. Allow to dry for 20-30 minutes before messing with the foam. You can flatten the foam if it has risen too high for your liking by taking a piece of cardboard or the toothpicks and removing some of the foam after allowing it to dry a little bit. Check every so often to see if it rises anymore and if you notice it stop then allow it to dry overnight.

TIP-
Since this project only uses a little bit of the spray foam, you can take a piece of string and place it in the opening of the can and in the nozzle . This allows you to remove any build up of foam by pulling on the string once it dries so that you can use the can over and over.

If you have a problem with the foam drying in the shape you want, you can use a sprayer filled with water and lightly mist it onto the piece because water can allow it to set quicker.

Step 3: Painting and Finishing

Eyes-
The eyes of this item are the main focus. So they needed to really stand out. I started by painting the wooden balls with white paint until the grain is not showing. Then taking a compass, I drew the outline for the iris and the pupil. I used blue paint for the iris and carefully filled in the circle that will be the iris. I then took black paint and outlined the iris and colored in the pupil. I made some black lines on the iris so the eye looks stressed. The eye ball itself was painted with red lines so it looks stressed too.

The Puddle-
The puddle was the simplest thing to paint. I used black paint around the eyes to have them stick out. Then painted the whole piece in a glossy red. I then used a darker red and did a coat with that. Switching to the glossy red again I did another coat and let everything dry. The whole piece was clear coated twice for a nice glossy finish.