Planning a Lego Themed Party: Easy Minifigure Party Favor Buckets

My family loves throwing themed parties - especially birthday parties!  It is so much fun to get a little crafty and add your own touch to your child's party and it can save you some money and make a really memorable time for your kids (even if they are children of the corn sometimes).  With my oldest son's 5th (!!!) birthday only a couple of weeks away, we are in full on planning and crafting mode.  Here are instructions for creating Lego mini figure party favor buckets.

 Please note that this post contains affiliate links.  This means that if you click on and/or buy something through the link, I will receive a small commission.  And after a few small commissions, I can head over to Starbucks to grab the most caffeine-laden product that they sell because sleep is for wusses.  At least in my house it is.  

When my oldest son asked for a Lego party this year, I was slightly shocked.  I mean, he is into Legos and everything, but for his last two birthdays, we have hosted a garbage truck themed party.  He is REALLY into garbage trucks.  REALLY.  INTO.  GARBAGE.  TRUCKS.  So imagine my surprise when he requested Legos this year.  I went into full on crafty mom mode, and when we hit the party store, I let my creativity run (I kept it in check though - I did NOT want to spend big $$$ on pre-made items).  When I saw these yellow buckets, I instantly thought MINI FIGURE HEAD!  So, at only $0.99 each, I cleared out nearly all of the yellow buckets.  Sorry, Party City, I got into my hoarder mode.  Any way, here are the exact buckets that I used:

 Next, I had to gather my supplies.  Watch out folks - it's a long list:  yellow buckets, tape, and a black permanent market.  Overwhelming, I know.

Now, I am not terrible at drawing, but drawing straight lines and even circles are NOT in my bag of tricks.  So I went over to Google images to locate the perfect Mini Figure face to use as a template.  I chose the perfect face and had to play around with the scale.  I decided on this one (click on the photo to visit the original source, please!):

FYI I shrunk my to about 60% before printing in order to achieve a perfect fit for the bucket. 

After printing the face, I cut out the rectangle, and then I cut out the eyes and the mouth and taped the entire rectangle (now a stencil) onto the bucket.

I colored in the eyes and the mouth with the black permanent marker - this took a couple of coats to get it dark enough.  After the ink was dry (a few seconds), I removed the stencil and was staring into the eyes of my very own Lego mini figure party favor bucket!

Looks pretty good if I do say so myself (please share with your friends if you think so, too) - I can't wait to fill it up!  Stay tuned to see what I put in the mini figure party favor buckets!

PS - this bucket would also make an amazing trick or treat pail for a Lego themed Halloween costume!