Art & Crafts

Disney Trip DIY - Minnie Ears by Upcycling 

When I started researching for our Disney vacation, I invariably saw pictures of girls wearing Minnie ears. The ears looked so cute and fun! No surprise that  Minnie ear hairbands were announced to be the prop of the trip! 

A few searches on youtube gave me my go-to video. Thankyou themissalliecakes for the inspiration.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUatMcFtwb8

I tweaked it with my choice of material and this is what we ended up making:)

 

My daughter stuck her ears a bit farther apart on the band. It would be a good idea to lay everything down and mark the distance before gluing the ears. 

Material Used:

Hairbands - I used old hairbands

Cardboard - It was lying around at home

Fabric - I used my daughter's worn out leggings

Filling - Foam sheets that had come with TV packing. (Another idea was to use lint from clothes dryer but I didn't have enough of it)

Red and Glittery Ribbon - From Christmas supplies 

Hot Glue Gun, Glue Sticks

Needle and Thread

I'm a DIY person who firmly believes in  reusing. So I was on cloud nine when a pair of old black leggings came in handy for the ears. But the most satisfying part was to fill the ears with foam sheet waste. The foam sheets don't look recyclable. It felt nice to earfill the sheets rather than to landfill them:) 

The other fun part of DIY is to get my daughter involved in these projects. We bond over craft and learn from each other. I've to admit, she has got good taste and a great eye for detail. She gave fabulous advice with the embellishments.

Instructions:

Just follow the video. It has great instructions.

Make sure to glue the bows and ears well on the hairband. I was afraid they would fall out and had carried my glue gun to Orlando. The glue gun sure came in handy. As we wore the ears all through the 8 hour long road trip, a bow came dangling out. I whipped out the glue gun and gave it first aid:)

                                   The D-Day! Here we are with our ears and our castle;)

It was a super fun and satisfying project. Not to mention, an economical one. We discovered that the ears were quite expensive in Disney stores. I was glad, we carried our own!

Let me know if you get inspired to make your own ears. Bonus points for repurposing the material. Do let me know in the comments about the material that you used. Have fun!