Minion-O-Lanterns

If you haven't seen the movie Despicable Me, then you don't know what you've been missing. One word: Minions! Minions are the lovable little yellow dude with stainless steel goggles on! They'll warm your heart and you won't be able to get enough! Well now there's an option for your halloween decor! Minion pumpkins, a.k.a. Minion-O-Lanterns!

Before you follow this Instructable, take a minute to watch our Minion Pumpkin tutorial video. It offers step-by-step instructions to help you make it!

Once you've finished the video, head on over to step 2!

I can't stress enough how important it is to start with a clean pumpkin! These things sit in pumpkin patches in the dirt for months. If they're not clean the paint isn't going to adhere properly and all of your hard work will be for nothing. Scrub it with soap and water.

Pumpkins are Orange, but you need your to be yellow. In my case, I chose to spray paint my entire pumpkin with a lacquer based spray paint from the local home improvement center. But you can just as easily use acrylic hobby & craft paint. If you go the spray paint method, be sure to wait 24 hours before moving on to the next step.

I used some masking tape and made a nice straight light around the pumpkin. I then used that to draw a line around the pumpkin with a sharpie. This would become the top of his pants. From there I just drew out the rest of his pants and then painted them on with acrylic craft paint.

It takes about three good coats to fully cover the yellow below. Be sure to get your lines straight before moving on to the next step.

Trace the outline of his pants with a paint marker of sharpie. This will nicely define the edges of his pants. Go ahead and draw in all of the buttons and pockets while you're ad it.

Use your creativity here and come up with a mouth design that you like. There's literally endless possibilities.

First, trace out a general mouth shape using a sharpie. Follow that up by filling the mouth using black acrylic craft paint. Give it a few coats and let it dry an hour or so. Then use a while paint marker (or a small brush and white acrylic craft paint) to paint his teeth. Again, let your imagination go wild.

Using some black acrylic craft paint, make a band around the top of his head, but leave a couple inch gap right where his eyes go.

You could also use electrical tape here instead of paint.

Cut off the bottom of a soda or beer can. If you want to make it even more authentic you can clean it on a wire brush on your drill press or grinder.

You can download and print out free Minion eyes from the Minions movie website. Just print them out and then glue or use double-sided tape to attach them to the centers of the bottoms of the soda cans.

Attach the soda cans to the minions using hot glue. If you don't have a hot glue gun, you can also use double sided tape.

That's all there is to it. Hang out on the patio and enjoy some time with your new Minion buddies!

Hey, if you liked this Instructable you'll probably like many of my others. Please take a minute to follow me here on Instructables and subscribe to my YouTube channel at YouTube.com/c/TheGeekPub. You can also read my website article at TheGeekPub.com on Making a Minion Pumpkin!