{diy} minecraft head tutorial

I posted about L's Minecraft party some time ago and I'll now attempt to show you how I made the Minecraft heads {I'm not good at giving directions so please bear with me}. I had the chance to make a second Steve's head for L's little cousin birthday party so this time was even quicker and I corrected some mistakes I made the first time.

After I got the idea of making these Minecraft heads I looked for some tutorials on the web but all of them needed me to print the entire template. So I either had to go to a print place {because of the size} or print in pieces at home. Still I was not very convinced. I knew it had to be another way to achieve that pixelated look. After looking around I realized I already had all materials I needed at home:

• A square-ish shaped box. Ideally the box should be a perfect square but the first time I used rectangular diaper boxes and they looked just fine. This time I found an almost perfect squared box in the attic {I'm a hoarder when it comes to boxes. But hey, you never know when you'd need one!}
• Card stock in different colors. The colors will depend on which character's head {Steve, Creeper, Enderman, etc} you want to make. You'll need different shades of the colors you choose to get the pixelated look.
• Kraft paper or wrapping paper. Again, the color will depend on which character's head you want to make.
• Glue, ruler, paper cutter or scissors

First thing to do is to measure one side of the box. The one  you want to use for the character's face. Measure height and width. Then divide each  dimension in 8 equal parts and mark up your box. With all dimensions {width and height} marked up draw a grid. The side of your box should look like the picture below. 

Once you have your grid, use this template to mark the squares corresponding to the hair, eyes, nose, mouth, etc. I didn't do this for the  first heads I made and I had to rip off quite a few squares more because I pasted them on the wrong location.

Next step is to measure one square of your grid to know what size of card stock squares you need to cut. This number depends on the size of the box you use. In my case I had {approx.} 1.5"x1.5" squares.

Cut 1.5"x1.5" {or whatever dimension you got} card stock squares in the colors you need. I use a paper cutter but scissors will be just fine. Make sure you have different shades of each color {for Steve's head I used different shades of brown and pink card stock}.

Before gluing the card stock squares, cover the rest of the box. Just wrap the other four visible sides of your box {three remaining sides and top, the bottom should remain open} with wrapping paper in a corresponding color {the first time I forgot to do this and had to cover the remaining sides at the end and it was a little sloppy}. I used kraft paper for the Steve's Head, some green gift wrapping paper for the Creeper's head and black card stock for the Enderman's head. In theory you can draw a grid on each side of the box and covered the whole box with card stock squares for an almost real pixelated look,  but for me the most important thing was the face {front}.

When you have all the other sides covered started gluing your card stock squares following your template.

The first time I made these heads I didn't cut out eyes because I thought they will only be used for decorations. But the day of the party L's friends wanted to play with them and asked me to cut eyes  so they could wear the heads and walk {without tripping} and role play.

I like that this project was very easy and budget-friendly. I made these heads as a surprise for L while watching TV a couple of nights, but these are definitely a great craft to make with your Minecraft-obssesed kids. It'll keep them entertain for hours and they will love the final product.