These Parachuting Toy Story Army Men are a perfect hanging decoration for your Toy Story party! Make as many as you want (or can!) for a great effect! The army men are such a fun little detail to include.
When originally wanting to include the army men from Toy Story (my nephew loves when they move and say ‘hut hut hut hut’), I looked around dollar stores for some ready made parachute men. I didn’t find any, just regular army men, which actually turned out to be a good thing! I realized that the parachutes wouldn’t look inflated, so I decided to make my own out of plastic bowls and paint.
This post contains affiliate links.
Find more Toy Story posts here!
Materials for 8 army men:
- Classic grass green spray paint
- Light green acrylic paint
- Beige acrylic paint
- Paint brush (size 8 or 10 works best)
- Plastic Bowls- 6 inch diameter
- Hole Punch
- Scissors
- Thread/Fishing line (18+ feet, normal spool works fine) (white, clear, or green are best)
- 8 Plastic army men
This is How to Make Parachuting Toy Story Army Men:
The bowls that I bought had rims on them. You can choose to keep these if you want, I cut the rims off to make them look more like parachutes. Start by spray painting the inside of the bowls with a classic grass green. This allows you to still flip them over to spray paint the outside without risk of paint coming off. Once dried for 24 hours, paint the camouflage ‘blobs’ with the light green and beige colors. The nice part about camouflage is you can look up pictures of it, but there’s no right or wrong way to paint them since they are all different. I painted on two to three coats depending on how solid the paint dried.
Once all the painting was done and dried for at least 24 hours, I used a hole punch and scissors to create four holes. Two at the top of the bowl with scissors or something you can stab it with (where the parachute would hang down from), and two on the sides (one on each side to balance out the army men). Then, I used sewing thread (you could also use fishing line) to wrap around the army men’s waist/middle, tie with a knot, then tie them to the sides of the parachute. It was a little difficult to get them perfectly balanced, so I first had to tie one side, then loop the thread through the other side until it looked close to the same length and tighten.
*Make sure to leave extra thread on each side so that it reaches up through the parachute to hang! Measure how long you need the string to be before cutting by holding it up where it will be hung. * (See photo for how I threaded the string).
When I started tying the thread to the bowl parachutes, I adjusted the thread loop as needed to keep the sides even. I pulled the thread from the side underneath the parachute and up through the top hole. Repeat on the other side and second hole.
To hang them, just tie the thread around whatever you’re attaching them to. You can vary the length of where to hang them to make it more exciting.
How to Make Parachuting Toy Story Army Men
Equipment
- hole punch
- scissors
- paint brush (size 8 or 10)
Ingredients
- classic green spray paint
- light green acrylic paint
- beige acrylic paint
- 6 disposable plastic bowls (6 inch diameter)
- 18+ feet thread or fishing line
- 8 plastic army men
Instructions
- Cut the rims of the bowls off if desired to get a better parachute shape.
- Spray paint the inside of the bowls with a classic grass green. This allows you to still flip them over to spray paint the outside without risk of paint coming off. Flip them over and paint the outside. Let dry for 24 hours.
- Once dry, paint the camouflage ‘blobs’ with the light green and beige colors. There is no right or wrong way to paint them since they are all different. You can use photos for reference if desired. Use two to three coats of paint until you get your desired look.
- When the paint is dry, punch two holes near the edge across from each other with the hole punch. Use scissors or something you can stab the plastic with to cut two small holes next to each other at the very top (center of the bowl). (See pictures for reference).
- Use sewing thread or fishing line to wrap around the army men’s waists/middles, tie with a knot, then tie them to the sides of the parachute. To balance them, first tie one side, then loop the thread through the other side until it looks close to the same length and tighten. *Make sure to leave extra thread on each side so that it reaches up through the parachute to hang! Measure how long you need the string to be before cutting by holding it up where it will be hung. * (See photo for how I threaded the string).
- Tie the army men to the parachutes by pulling the threads attached to their waists that are through the side holes up into the small holes at the top. Pull through and continue adjusting the strings as necessary.
- Hang the army men by attaching the strings with tape or tacks to the ceiling or surface. Hang the army men at varying heights for the best effect.
Leave a Reply