October 2015 – Geek Mom Projects

Making Uncanny Eyes

October 31, 2015December 1, 2015 by Debra

Spooky eyes blink, move and even dilate their pupils.

My middle son and I have a tradition of incorporating electronics projects into our Halloween costumes. This year we saw the tutorial for Uncanny Eyes on Adafruit, written by Phillip Burgess, and instantly decided that we had to make them. The project uses two TFT or OLED screens to create realistic moving and blinking eyes controlled by a Teensy 3.1. This post documents our build process and how we’ve each decided to use the eyes differently in our Halloween costumes. It will make more sense if you’ve read the tutorial on Adafruit, however, you should still be able to follow along even if you haven’t.

3D Printed No-Carve Pumpkin Decorations for Halloween

October 13, 2015January 26, 2016 by Debra

I love Halloween for its spooky and amusing decorations and am always amazed by the creativity people put into making jack-o-lanterns. However, it’s frustrating to put hours of creative work into carving a pumpkin, just to have it rot after only a few days. The simplest solution is no-carve pumpkin decorating. You can find articles on painted and embellished pumpkins online, however, I haven’t seen any that explore the possibilities that a 3D printer adds. So, I thought I’d bring a little high-tech to my arts-and-crafts projects.