One in a Minion

Believe it or not, I just about have my Valentines done. This is the first year that I have just one kid to make Valentines for because apparently it's not cool to hand out Valentines in middle school.

I don't even care, I love our Valentines so much this year that I'm going to give Valentines to my teacher friends even though I'm in middle school.

I originally saw this idea on Pinterest, of course. When I saw them, I knew I had to make them because I love Twinkies and I love Minions.

I took step-by-step pictures in case any one cares. Honestly though, they were super easy to put together.

I started by buying all the Twinkies at Walmart. And then I had to go back for more because my Twinkies were disappearing faster than I could wrap them in overalls.

In my defense, it wasn't just me. My whole family loves Twinkies.

Basically the rule was that if a Twinkie had overalls on it, it was safe. No overalls and it was a free for all. There is ugliness in this house, I'm telling you.

We are a rule abiding household though. For example we have rules governing cat barf and the dishwasher. Not at the same time mind you, but the first person to spy the cat barf has to clean it up. And when you accidentally step in it with bare feet, it's impossible not to give yourself away. Likewise, the first person to open the dishwasher after the clean cycle has to empty it.

Last week I made the mistake of cleaning up after myself and opened the dishwasher when I was in a hurry. "AAAARGH!" I exclaimed, and Zoe snickered at me and replied "Caught in your own trap, Mom. That's awesome."

The little brat.

So Minions. Let's get to it, shall we?

Here's pretty much what I started with. And Twinkies. No Twinkie and you don't have a Minion.

I made myself a sheet of little Minion overalls and copied them onto blue copy paper. If you want to use mine, which by the way are not excellent, I've included them and the hearts at the bottom of this post.

Before I could start, Stinkerbell spent a week cutting out overalls and hearts, and that is when we lost a lot of Twinkies. 

This is going to seem like overkill, but I found it necessary to stick a looped piece of tape on the back of the overalls to keep them from sliding around on the Twinkie while I was positioning them. It's an OCD thing. Crooked overalls make me twitchy.

Next, I taped the two ends of the overalls to the back of the Twinkie.

Then I taped a 1/2 inch thick strip of black card stock around the Twinkie to serve as the strap for its goggles.

I used my Mini Circle punch to cut out the frames for the goggles.

And I used hot glue to glue googly eyes to the goggles.

Once the eyes were ready, I hot glued the be-goggled eyes to the strap. This is when the Twinkies really become Minions. When they can see.

Some Minions have one eye and some have two.

The hearts were taped to the back of the Twinkies.

And as a finishing touch I drew mouths on the Minions with a Sharpie.

All in all, they were pretty simple Valentines to put together.

Here are the hearts, you can print them on pink or red printer paper and cut them out.

The overalls should be printed on blue printer paper. Of course both could be printed on white paper and copied onto colored paper. Whichever works best for you. 

The overalls should be printed "full-bleed" or "borderless" so that they print to the edge of the paper. Otherwise, they might be too small.

The hearts could be smaller and not matter.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have some Minions to dress before they are prematurely executed.