DIY Minion Pinata for Under $5

Make this DIY Minion Pinata for your next Despicable Me party! Perfect party game made for less! This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. May contain commissioned links. #The7thMinion #CollectiveBias

DIY Minion Pinata

The minions are coming! The minions are coming!

If your kids are anything like mine, you’re counting down the days (even minutes) until the opening of the new Minions movie. To celebrate one of the most epic movies of the summer, we made this easy DIY Minion Piñata for under $5. A perfect frugal party idea and summer activity, my kids are “busting” at the seams for their favorite little banana lovers. Are you ready to find the 7th Minion?

Grab your DIY Moana Pinata too!

I’ve always loved a good party piñata. But have you seen the prices lately? YIKES! $20-$40 for a piñata of your child’s favorite cartoon is not a justifiable cost for a crafty mom. I could do better. Inspired by the new Minions movie, we headed to Walmart for some piñata crafting inspiration.

My kids have eagle eyes lately from anything that’s cute, yellow and minion-like. Can you tell that we’re excited for the new movie? I was stocking up on our family’s favorite General Mills cereals when those adorable minion eyes caught the attention of my kids. The minions have invaded the General Mills Family Size and XXL cereal boxes at Walmart.

Remember those cereal box prizes from when you were little? Good times! So when the words FREE minion jumped out on our favorite Cheerios and Cinnamon Toast cereals, I knew these boxes were coming home with me. But what makes these gems even more special? The 7th Minion.

That’s right, while most stores have 6 different free minion toys inside specially marked General Mills cereals, the exclusive Prehistoric Minion Toy (aka the 7th Minion) is only inside select Honey Nut Cheerios, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Lucky Charms, Reese’s Puffs, Trix, Cocoa Puffs and Golden Grahams at Walmart. The hunt for the 7th minion was on!

Easy Minion Pinata DIY

An extra large cereal box and a free minion toy? It’s like a crafting mom’s dream come true. I could work with this. And that’s how this DIY Minion Pinata came to be. A Minions movie combined with a summer boredom busting activity, how could we go wrong?

What You Will Need:

What I love about this supply list is that we could easily upcycle our XXL General Mills cereal box and combine lots of great crafting supplies we already had at home, making this frugal craft even better!

• XXL or Family Size Cereal Box (Did I mention free 7th minion toy inside select General Mills cereals at Walmart? I used my XXL Honey Nut Cheerios box)
• Yellow Tissue Paper – about 10-15 pieces to be on the safe side, in case of tears
• Construction Paper – Black, Blue, Yellow, Brown, White
• Small Dessert Size Paper Plates in Silver
• Black Pipe Cleaners
• 2 Black Buttons
• Scissors
• Glue Sticks
• Hot Glue Gun
• One Hole Puncher
• Piñata filling (candy, small toys, stickers, etc.)
• Rope
• Pencil

Directions:

1. Glue Yellow Construction Paper to all sides of the cereal box. You want to cover any wording and colors so your minion will be brilliantly yellow!

2. Now we’re going to glue on the bottom portion of the minion overalls. Cut out a 2.5-3 inch high rectangle to cover the bottom of the cereal box on all sides.

3. Now for the tissue paper. This paper makes all of the difference in a classic piñata, so don’t skip this step! Stack your tissue paper together and cut long 1.5 inch thick strips of yellow tissue paper, the width of the cereal box. (Having a paper cutter would be really useful for this step, otherwise accordion fold the strips and cut with scissors.)

Keeping the paper stacked together, then cut very thin lines into the bottom half of the strips to create the piñata fringe look.

4. Start at the bottom of the cereal box (just above where the blue overalls stop) and glue the yellow tissue paper fringe strips onto the cereal box. Be careful in gluing so you don’t rip the delicate paper. Overlap the strips going up the box so just the fringe portion shows.

Complete for all of the sides of the box.

5. Now for the eyes. Using a large circle stencil, trace and cut 2 equal sized minion goggles out of the silver plates, about 3.5-4 inches in diameter. Using a slightly smaller circle stencil, trace and cut out the whites of the eyes out of white construction paper to fit inside the goggles. Glue them in the center of the silver plates.

Make even smaller brown circles with brown construction paper and even smallest black circles out of black construction paper to complete the eyes. Cut out 2 long black strips to complete the goggles.

6. Cut out a cute little mouth out of black construction paper. I did a sneaky side smile.

7. To finish the pieces of the overalls, cut out a smaller blue rectangle, blue pocket and black “Gru” emblem out of construction paper. I used an accordion fold on the pocket to get a more 3D effect. Cut two small blue rectangle strips for the overall straps. Get your black buttons ready.

8. Inside the top flap of the cereal box, hot glue your pieces of minion hair (aka your pipe cleaners). Bend and arrange to stick up the top of the piñata.

9. Place your piñata filling inside the box. Because piñatas aren’t the same without fun goodies inside.

10. Now, overlap and punch out 1 hole in each of the top flaps of the cereal box. Make sure these hole line up correctly. Thread through your rope and tie a HUGE knot in the end.

For double security, I also hot glued the rope to the inside of the box. Hot glue the top flaps of the cereal box down to hold the candy inside.

11. Now before hot gluing any of your minion eyes, mouth or overalls, lay out the pieces onto the piñata to make sure everything is kosher. Hot glue into place to look like shown. You’re ready for piñata fun!

12. Tie your rope up so the piñata hangs down, ready for action.

Let the kids enjoy taking turns trying to get the candy to come out 🙂

So whether it’s summer party time or playtime, the minions have invaded our home with this fun DIY Minion Pinata! Perfect for parties, get togethers and playdates, we can enjoy minions anytime!

Make sure to pick up your boxes of General Mills cereals with the exclusive 7th minion at Walmart and create your own DIY Minion Pinata! My kids are still talking about when we can make our next piñata. For under $5, I’ll definitely be doing this again! Looking for more minion activities? Check out my Minions Kids Ice Experiment & DIY Minion Goggles Craft for more fun and inspiration!

How are you getting the family ready for the new Minions movie?

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