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I stumbled upon this genius idea from Sabrina on Instagram! She turned a regular ol' straw bale into a spooky vampire minion decoration for Halloween! Today she is sharing her tutorial with us...
Materials:
- 13" straw bale (6"x5" wide)
- 2 sheets of blue and purple felt
- 1 sheet yellow, black, white felt
- 18" White Plastic Doll Armature
- 1.25" googly eye
- black pipe cleaners
- chip board
- 1 plastic easter egg
- can of plasti dip (white or black)
- silver acrylic paint
- hot glue and hot glue gun
- exact blade
- scissors
How to make the minion:
- Minion base: Cut a few rectangles of chipboard 6"x5" to glue together and create the base for the minion. Hot glue the straw bale to the base.
- Overalls: Take half of your blue sheet of felt and cut the front of his overalls. Then use the opposite side to cut the back side. Hot glue the piece on to the lower half of your minion. Use the second sheet to cut out straps; glue those on as well.
- Arms: Determine the length you want his arms to be, and pull apart the Doll Armature (legs or arms) and wrap a strip of yellow felt around the plastic. This allows full mobility on the arms of your minion. Glue the felt to itself and be sure not to glue it to the Armature. I choose to make it a 2" strip.
- Insert the arms into the straw bale below the overall straps and glue them in.
- Hands: Cut out a glove with the black felt that will allow coverage of the whole arm. 2 gloves are needed per hand, 4 total. Glue these to themselves and the arm. Now your minion can wave at you!
- Eye(s): Choose a googly eye and place it where you'd like it with hot glue on the straw bale. cover it with a half moon of yellow felt to create an upper or lower eyelid.
- Goggles: Take the plastic easter egg and pop it in half. Take whatever half you'd like and cut a half inch thick piece with your exacto blade to create the depth of the goggle. Then cut a ring from the chip board and glue that to your egg piece. No paint will stick to this so spray it with plasti dip to give it a base. Paint with silver (or use silver nail polish) and glue it around the goggly eye. Use 3 pipe cleaners on either side to lay a flat goggle band on the minion face.
- Mouth: Cut a half moon for the mouth out of black felt and then cut out round rectangles for teeth from the white felt. Be sure to cut 2 fangs. Glue the teeth to the black felt to create the smile and then glue that directly to the straw bale.
- Hair: Choose any number of black pipe cleaners and insert it into the top of the straw bale for hair. Glue is not necessary. Cut to desired length.
- Cloak: Cut the purple felt in half, and line up over the overalls. This should be enough to wrap around until you get the arms. Glue down making sure to leave a collar to pop out. Cut the other felt piece in half and glue to the front side of the minion making sure to glue at the armpits. Use the leftover felt to fill in holes, or make multiple layers or decorate the cloak in as much detail as you'd like.
Your vampire minion is now complete!! If you want an already made one, you can buy one off Etsy here!
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