Mickey Mouse Toy Buckets

Here’s a birthday party favor that’s both fun and practical. Take an ordinary beach pail, decorate it with the image of everybody’s favorite mouse, and you’ve got a handy bucket for stowing a tide of toys. The Mickey decal is a cinch to assemble, which makes it a great project for an older sibling to lend a hand with.

You’ll need:

• Blue plastic beach pail
• Template for Mickey Mouse Toy Bucket
• Scissors
• Craft paper (black, pale orange, white, and pink)
• Fine-tipped black permanent marker
• Glue stick
• Laminating sheets (sold in office supply stores) or clear packing tape

Instructions:

1. Print the template and use it as a pattern for cutting the head, nose, mouth, and eye pupils from black paper, the face from pale orange paper, the eyes from white paper, and the tongue from pink paper.

2. Place the face template on top of the pale orange cutout and trace over the nose wrinkle and smile lines, pressing down firmly enough to leave an imprint. Remove the template and use a black marker to retrace the imprint lines on the orange face.

3. Glue the pupils on the eyes and the tongue atop the mouth. Then glue the eyes, nose, and mouth onto the face. Finally, glue the face on the head so that the lower jaw and chin extend slightly below the edge of the black paper, as shown.

4. Use a piece of a laminating sheet or strips of clear packing tape to securely seal the paper Mickey decal to the front of the plastic beach pail.

For more Mickey fun, check out the official Mickey Mouse site.