So the brief this year for office Kris Kringle was ‘Mouse Pads’ (Thanks again, Rebecca!) and, rather than go trawling the net for wacky or rude mouse-pads, I thought to make my own.
Luckily, my KK has a particular fondness for Despicable Me Minions, so the theme was easy enough to come by. The hard bit was figuring out the best representation.
No, actually the hard part was bringing it in to work on the back of a scooter.
No, in truth, the hard part was keeping prying eyes from peeking inside the box.
Bah! Enough blathering. You came to see a super-cool awesome Minion Beach Party Mouse Pad, right?
Well, here you go!
There! Wasn’t that fun? You can make your own, too. Well, go on! What’s stopping you?
Ah, you’re probably after Pro-tips:
- Get small, like 3 cm or 1″ small, minions. These are found on eBay or novelty stores, as cake toppers, as toys.
- For the trees, I went with 14cm or 6″ palms. Try diorama or hobby stores for these.
- Use clean sand. Although a ‘real’ beach has twigs and stuff in it, clean sand gives a nicer finish.
- Use plenty (lots (much (scads (bucketloads)))) of glue to set the sand. It’s going to live on a desk, and you don’t want it to start to degrade.
- Use waterbased glue and varnish! I can’t stress this enough. Wait time is reduced, pong factor is reduced, lustre and strength is just as good as oil.
- Be patient between coats. Let it set for at least an hour. Go away, have a beer or a coffee or mow the lawn, then come back.
- The substrate was an old stable table, but any hard, flat material will do, like good wood, an old cutting board or perspex.
- When cutting plastic, use a thin wood cutting blade. If you use a metal cutting blade, you’ll gum the plastic, and if you use a rough-cut blade, you’ll eat the plastic alive.
If you want to know more, just drop me a message. Cheers, and Merry Christmas Sarah!