Tuesday, October 6, 2015

How to Make a Minion Planter



This project makes an adorable flower pot and the small ones make great table decorations especially for kids parties!

Watch the how-to video here!

Items needed:

All items were purchased for under $30


6 Terra Cotta Pots: *2-8” pots. For the body we are using two 8.25” pots from home depot, these pots are a little bit shorter than traditional pots, this gives the minion a more compact look. $2.98 each *4-3” pots for the arms and legs we are using four 3” pots from Michaels craft store. These pots give our minion the right dimensions. You could substitute for 4” pots if desired. https://amzn.to/3oHcoWl
Rope: 6’ of rope. Make sure that the rope is thick enough that it will fit through the holes in the pot and won’t slip out when a knot is tied. Ours is from Home Depot at it was $.60 total

Paint: The glossier the better *Yellow, You want a bright cheery yellow, we used the color “English Daisy” by BEHR from Home Depot in a Satin Finish that is a sample size. $3.48 *Blue, a nice rich blue, we used the color “Brilliant Blue” by BEHR from Home Depot in a Satin Finish, sample size. $3.48 *White, as pure as you can get it, we used “White” by Apple Barrel in Satin Finish #21954E from Amazon *Black, as pure as you can get it, we used “Black” by Apple Barrel in Satin Finish #21985E from Amazon Stencil: We have a free stencil for different size pots or if you want, you can draw the minion freehand.
Stencil: 8"short pot (used in video): http://www.easysimplegardening.com/uploads/6/3/1/6/63169995/minion_stencil_short.jpg Stencil: 8"regular pot stencil: http://www.easysimplegardening.com/uploads/6/3/1/6/63169995/minion_stencil_tall.jpg Brushes: You can use any kind of brushes you want, however we found that a variety pack worked best for us, because of the different pot dimensions and detail work. We used a 20 brush pack from Amazon https://amzn.to/3oGsboa Pencil: For tracing our stencil Tape: For securing the stencil to the pot. Polyurethane: If your minion is going to be outside it would be a good idea to use a protective coating of some sort, this will help to preserve the color and defend against water and uv rays. We have found that a spray polyurethane is the easiest to apply just spray it on, wait for it to dry then you’re ready to go. Amazon: https://amzn.to/3mJ2RvW


Let's get started!


  1. Set aside two small pots for later.
  2. Paint the remaining 2 big pots and 2 small pots completely yellow, you can paint the inside of the pot if you want to.  Because terracotta is such a porous material it absorbs the paint very easily, chances are you are going to want to put a 2nd and possibly even a 3rd coat, depending how how intense you want the color to be.  We used 2 coats and found that it gave us a good balance of color and still had the terracotta pot look to it.
  3. Once the yellow is completely dry, take one big yellow pot and place it upside down then take the remaining big yellow pot and place it directly on top of the other one right side up.  Creating an hourglass figure.
  4. We need to outline the minion. You can free hand draw it, which we found to be little difficult if you have never done this before.  That's why we created the stencil you can use.  Outline your minions, goggles, mouth, eyes, and overalls, once you are done with the overalls, move them to the back of the minion and trace his backside.
  5. Paint the overalls and the rim of the bottom big pot completely blue, then paint the two unpainted pots we set aside earlier entirely blue.
  6. Because the rims of the pots are not perfectly square a trick I found that works well is to get a small tip paint brush and carefully paint the inside corner of the rim, this will help keep your line nice and straight.
  7. Over the blue overalls we want to trace the logo as well as the buttons, once again don’t forget to put buttons on the back of his overalls
  8. Paint the goggle straps, the eyeballs, the logo, the hair, the mouth, the overall buttons and the rims of all the small pots black. (the rims on the small pots will represent the minions gloves and shoes giving a nice finished look) With the hair,there is no template you can paint that however you want, we recommend always drawing it first with a pencil then painting it black, there are only 5 styles of minion hair including being bald.
  9. Once the black paint is dry, you can outline the teeth stencil in the mouth.
  10. Paint the Teeth, and eyes white.
  11. To paint the goggles the correct color of grey, take a dab of white paint about the size of a quarter and use one of the smaller brushes to mix a drop of black paint into the white and make grey.  Use this to paint the rims of the goggles. You are all done painting!
  12. To attach the legs take the top Large Yellow pot and set it aside.  The amount of string you need to use depends entirely on whatever size pots you use.  We like to keep about one inch of exposed string for the arms and three inches of exposed string for the legs.  Take your string and put it through the drainage hole of the small yellow pot (arm) and tie a knot so that the string won’t pull back through, then take the string and run it through the hole on the upside down big pot.  Place the small yellow pot (arm) directly on top of the large pot, (this will help with getting the spacing correct for the rope length)  slip the rope through the drainage hole on the small blue (leg) pot and tie a knot just outside the rim of the pot, cut off any remaining string and repeat for the 2nd arm and leg.
  13. Take the top half of your minion body place it back on top of the other large pot and you now have a completed minion planter.
  14. If you are keeping this pot outside it’s always a good idea to give it some extra protection so we recommend a clear coat polyurethane, these can be painted on or you can just spray it on and this will help protect the paint from any damaging water, or uv rays that can diminish the vibrancy of your planter.
    Voila!