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Thursday, September 20, 2012

Minnie Mouse Car

Update: At the request of many, I've opened up an Etsy shop so I can help people with their Cozy Coupes =) As of right now, I only offer the polka dots and the name to put on the back of the car. To view my shop, check it out HERE

As you know from this post here, we had a pretty nifty Minnie Mouse birthday party for our KennaBoo. One of our greatest achievements (yes, we’re proud, lol) was her Minnie Mouse car! I originally got the idea from Kristin over at the Hunted Interior blog. Check her blog out. She’s amazing!
minnie mouse car preview
So here we go. Be prepared for lots of pictures =)
So, this is a pic of the hubby finding our free car at the garbage dump (yes, I know, we were essentially dumpster diving minus the dumpster, lol). He assessed the car’s value, then stuffed it in my truck. Then it stayed in my yard for months, lol, until I realized what I wanted to do with it.
cozy coupe car
After creativity struck, Travis dismantled the car for me which was surprisingly easy. However there were some washers and those little cap things that pretty much disintegrated when he pulled them off with the pliers but our local hardware store had some pretty silver ones =) We spent $6 on the hardware.
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I didn’t get a picture of us Trav spraying the bottom part red since I ran inside because Kenna woke from her nap. Thank goodness for baby monitors or we would have never got this done! Then we put it back together and stuffed it in my craft shed.
minnie mouse car 2
Using my Cricut, I cut the polka dots out with vinyl and I added her name on the back. The font I used is called Waltograph.
minnie mouse car 1
In the meantime, I pondered on what I was going to make the bow and ears out of. I settled on 1/2” plywood and used craft foam for the ears. If you’re going to keep the car outside, I would definitely use something other than craft foam. We keep her toys like this in the shed so I’m not too worried about it. Oh, and the extra one was for a coworker. Her husband had cut the bow for me and while he was cutting, his 3-year-old grandson wanted one to give to his little girlfriend at school so I painted it for him. UPDATE: He ended up not giving it to his “girlfriend” but kept it for himself, lol.
minnie mouse bows 4
minnie mouse bows 3
minnie mouse bows
minnie mouse bow 2
minnie mouse ears
minnie mouse bows ears 3
minnie mouse bow ears 2
I ended up gluing the ears to the back of the bow with some E-6000 glue. Then Trav affixed the whole shebang to the car by screwing from the underside of the roof into the bow.
And here we are! Ta-dah!
minnie mouse car
It was fun and easy and Kenna LOVED it. Mission accomplished =)
And for the details, I used Universal Rustoleum that has paint + primer for the black and used Rustoleum Plastic spray paint for the red (spent $14 at Lowes). The white dots and black outlines on the bow were from a Valspar paint sample and craft paint that I had on hand. So with the spray paint and hardware mentioned above, we spent about $20! To check out the rest of the birthday party, head over here!

Updated 2/16/2013: I've had a lot of requests and questions asking if I make these cars for people to order. Unfortunately, I do not. We found this car in a very "thrifty" way ;) and went from there. I highly encourage everyone to try to make one. It would mean so much more as a gift and it was so much fun! It was the first big project my husband and I did together and was so much fun! Feel free to email me pictures if you decide to make one. I've had a few pictures sent and have loved that you all are sharing with me =)

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