Minion Portrait Frames

My next project wasn't strictly original inspiration, but I liked what I saw and thought I could make it myself less expensively, and to match my sister's nursery decor. I saw these prints (now no longer available--- which justifies this even more, right?) on a site that makes licensed nursery decor:

I thought at first that I would accomplish this project by printing some minions out, and gluing them to yellow chevron craft paper in gray frames, which plays on the colors and patterns in my sister's nursery decor.

Problem 1: Right now the colored ink is out on my printer (I know, I know- easy fix..buttt)
Problem 2: How to cut the little tiny hairs out without lots of annoyance.

Solution: Minion decals from Amazon. I bought some that look like this:

And relievedly, these are not all connected together as pictured.

I then went out thrifting, and found slightly different frames, all of the same size, and purchased some gray spray paint at Lowe's.

Note, I asked the person working in the paint department what kind I should use, and she said it didn't matter- so I just picked a color I liked.

I sanded the frames a little, so they'd take the paint better, and had my handsome husband put three coats on them:

I then let them dry for 24 hours, per the instructions on the can.

I went to Joann's on a related mission, and picked up some craft paper to form the backgrounds, and assembled all of my supplies:

Here's where I ran into hiccup number two ): The minion decals were not opaque, as I'd thought.. but translucent. (Side note- I think these were some of my favorite vocabulary/ science learning concepts in 6th grade or so.. translucent, transparent, opaque..cool stuff). The upshot of this was the cool colored stripes paper showed right through the little minions ):

So, we adapted. I had my husband use our paper cutter to cut the paper down to our frame size, and then laid the minions on the paper, trimming off excess overhanging bits of minion.

Here's the final product:

As you can see, I just used the white backing of the craft paper. Still looks sharp, and avoids my original problem of trying to put these on a white backing and then cutting them out and gluing them to a new backing.

Bonus: I have an extra minion decal to give to my sister-- or the opportunity to add another project in, to make use of the bonus decal!

Total time spent: 26 hours (2 active hours, 24 drying hours).
Total cost: 4 frames at $2.40 each + 1 can of spray paint ($2.75) + minion decals ($13.50- free to me though via a free amazon gift card) + craft paper, 4 pieces at $.99 each= $29.81 or $16.31 cost to me.


Now granted, this is slightly more in cost than purchasing these prints would be, but they are custom to my sister's nursery colors, and like I said- if you have patient hands, you could cut down the minion cost by printing them yourself.

As always, happy crafting,

Jenn

Minion Lamp

I spent this last weekend working on my original design of a minion lamp, inspired by a post I had seen on Pinterest of a single minion eye on a wooden crate:

I had checked out potential bases for the lamps, from Target and Lowe's, like this one:

But on a recent thrifting expedition, I found the perfect base, for only $5!

I purchased a white lamp shade from Wal-mart:

There were lamp shades available on Amazon in yellow shades, but I didn't like the available shapes/ prices.

So, I used Rit Dye in the Golden Yellow formula, to make my lampshade the color I wanted:

I let the dyed lampshade dry for about an hour, then stenciled out my design, and filled it in using craft paint. I tested the shade out with the light on, and added some extra coats so that no light pinpricks showed through the design.

 I thought initially that paint pens might be the best avenue, but I find they don't release enough paint. The difficulty here, then, was choosing a paint brush that gave enough control for fine detail without being sloppy.

Here's the final product:

Total project time: 3 hours.
Total cost: $7.98 Lampshade + 2.75 Rit Dye + $5 lamp base + free paint & brushes I had at home= $15.73

I hope to complete a similar project for another nephew, but in a Nightmare Before Christmas Design, for a Christmas present, which I'll begin work on after all of the minion stuff is ready!


All in all, I'm very pleased that this came out looking like what I envisioned in my mind.

As always, happy crafting!

Jenn

Hello World!

I'm a third year law student who loves to craft for my family and friends in my "free time". This involves some mix of sewing, painting, and hot glue, or whatever strikes my fancy and gets the job accomplished. I'm currently in the middle of a several minion projects for my soon-to-be born nephew's nursery, and I hope that some of my projects may inspire you in your own crafting.

I gave myself a budget of $100 for this minion project, and I'm hoping to accomplish at least four cute, but functional projects out of that. 

Please feel free to leave me comments asking about my methods, etc. In these early projects, I haven't taken many pictures of the step by step process. I will say though, that these aren't projects of many steps, nor do they require much skill.

Happy crafting,

Jenn