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I'll be teaching a calligraphy workshop in Salt Lake City, UT this October 19th at 5:30. Come!! We have two spots left, so sign up soon!  If you missed out, sign up for the newsletter! Signing up means you get info on deals with the online class and when local class registrations go live. Hope to see you there!   

If you're here from KSL Studio 5, WELCOME!! I'm excited to have you here! If you'd like to join my next calligraphy workshop in Salt Lake City, click here to register. If you'd like to learn calligraphy online, click here instead. ;)

Here's the link to the Studio 5 segment, in case you missed it. ;)

This DIY is too simple and hilarious not to share. Last year I bought some 7" googly eyes from amazon and hung them on my willow tree in the front yard. It rained. The googly eyes fell apart. $7 down the drain. I think those googly eyes would have been great if I had used them inside, or if I lived in a climate that never rained or snowed during the month of October. :/ BUT this year I decided I needed to keep with the googly eye tradition and just make my own.  And honestly, I don't know why I didn't make a million of these bad boys before. They're easy and cost basically nothing. I had everything on-hand because, well... I'm a craft supplies hoarder. I didn't have black cardstock, but I did have black lined writing paper, so I used that. You can cut out your own by hand or on a craft cutter like the Silhouette (which is what I did) OR you can print out the eyeballs from the template I've designed by clicking the download link below: 

DOWNLOAD GOOGLY EYE TEMPLATE HERE

  SUPPLIES 

• Paper (two contrasting colors, white and black are my go-to)
• Scissors (the bigger the better here)
• Laminator
• Lamination sheets

If you don't have a laminator or sheets, you can buy one (it's a great investment if you have kids – especially school-aged kids). The exact one I have (and love) is linked in the supplies description, but I've found this one here on Amazon for $18. You can't go wrong with AmazonBasics branded stuff. Or you can go to your local copy shop and they can laminate for you. In fact, if you want to go bigger than 8.5x11, most copy shops can laminate large poster sheets. That'd be epic if you have a really big bush or tree in your front yard. Or if you want to put the googly eyes on your front windows.  First, you want to cut out your eyeballs. Any size and style will work. You don't have to use the above template, you can free-hand any style and it'll still come out cool. See above link if you want to print and cut from my template. I have silly and angry eyes in the template.  Really, you can play around with the eye shape and expression so much. You don't have to go with a perfect oval or circle with perfect pupils. Here are some other fun ideas for crazy googly eye shapes: 

You can get so clever with these designs, right? Now the key with this is in the lamination. We start with paper, we laminate it and then it's weather-proof! The trick with lamination is to get your holes for fastening the eyes onto your foliage in there BEFORE you cut out the eye from the lamination. First, you’ll punch holes above and below the eyeballs in the lamination (not the paper), about 1/4 of an inch away from the paper. Cut around the lamination, leaving a generous 1/4 to 1/3 inch border between the paper and your scissors. Cut around the hole punches with a curve. If you cut corners around the hole punch, the plastic may tear eventually. See above. Secure to bushes or trees with string or twisty wire. I like using wire.  Get kids or neighbors in on the fun, too! The kids really got in on the fun (this is our neighbor's house, she has cuter porch decorations - she's also supermom, check out her blog here). It's a great minimalistic way to add some halloween flair to the front porch. I'm not one to store a lot of seasonal decor, so it's nice that these can pack away flat for next year! Affiliate links are used to help support my crafting addiction. Your support and purchasing through these links doesn't affect your final price, but helps me make more content like this. All thoughts and opinions are my own.