My daughter wanted a Minecraft villager costume for a party, which meant we needed an elongated cubic head.
We did not have lots of time, so we decided to look for an off-the-shelf box to start with. Off we went to IKEA and the PAPPIS box had a perfect size for an 11 year old.
We also had some fun in IKEA and the reward for the costume was a slice of ALMONDY. The cost is negligible; we used stuff we found at home.
Pay attention to size, because the box must fit on a head and shall not rest on the kid’s shoulders. This hack is really simple, but an adult is needed for the cutting part.
IKEA items:
- 1 PAPPIS box
Other materials and tools:
- Pair of scissors (big)
- Knife (sharp, pointed)
- Glue gun (for speed and strength)
- Acrylic paint & brushes (other paint can do)
- Pencil
- Styrofoam sheet (5 cm thick minimum)
- Brown packing paper (or cardboard) (optional for covering back with IKEA instructions)
- Foam rubber (1 cm thick) (optional for 3D nose)
- Piece of wire and a pincer (20-30 cm) (optional for heating and cutting Styrofoam)
Instructions for Minecraft villager costume
1. Assemble the PAPPIS box according to original instructions, except for the lid.
Related: IKEA KURA bed with Minecraft Decor
2. Cut the folding sides of the lid with a sharp knife or scissors, because we do not need them to cover the box.
3. The lid will be the face and will be painted later. The assembly instructions will be on the outside (normally the bottom of the box), so that will be the back of the head. Turn the box so the face is long as show on the picture and the side becomes the bottom. Mark with a pencil.
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4. Cut a hole in the bottom of the head (originally the short side of the box). Make sure the hole is big enough to fit your kid’s head in. Ours was 19 cm in diameter.
It does not need to be perfect. It’s easier to cut, if you glue the cardboard pieces that make the side of the box together.
Minecraft Villager Costume: Fitting the head
5. Cut the Styrofoam board into 3 square pieces roughly 24 cm on each side, so they fit in the top of the head, on the opposite side to the hole. These will help to hold the head on the kid’s real head.
We used 3 pieces, to make the thing 15 cm thick. If you have thinner or thicker Styrofoam, adjust accordingly. You can also use scrap Styrofoam from old boxes, quality does not matter, as it will be inside and the sole function is to hold the head.
6. Glue the Styrofoam sheets together and make sure they fit in the box. I used a glue gun. Do not glue it to the box yet.
7. Cut an indentation into the Styrofoam with a hot wire or a knife. Take extra care with both tools, one is hot, the other is sharp. Do a dry fit on your kid’s head. Make adjustments until it fits and is comfortable. Also try it out within the box. See the diagram.
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8. When it fits, glue the Styrofoam head holder in the box.
9. Now you can close the box with a glue gun by gluing the edges. I also strengthened the other parts of the box by adding some extra glue.
Minecraft Villager Costume: Painting the grids
10. When the head is assembled, draw a 3 cm grid with a pencil on the face. This will allow you to paint pixels from Minecraft. It will not fit perfectly, so you can be generous with the top and bottom lines, as the will be slightly wider than 3 cm. A few millimeters don’t make a difference. The box is 34 cm long and 11 pixels are 11×3=33 cm.
11. Paint the grid according to the diagram below or in any other way you like. You can Google up any Minecraft face and copy it, or you can make your own creation.
12. Cut a 1 cm wide hole for eyes. We did it right below the black eyebrows in one version and right in the eyebrows in another one for a friend. The latter looked better.
13. Cut the rubber foam to the size of 6×12 cm or 2×4 pixels measured on the face grid. Paint it and glue it to the head making sure one pixel hangs off from the side. You can also use Styrofoam for the nose, if you really want it to be three dimensional. It should be one pixel or 3 cm thick.
14. Finally, cover the back of the head as it shows the IKEA box assembly instructions. We used a brown packing paper, but you could also paint it. You can also paint the entire head with pixels, if you have time.
We generously ignored this step as it was already 10pm and the costume party was the next day.
Here’s Sylvia in her Minecraft Villager Costume.
~ by Sylvia & Tom Biro (daughter and dad)
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