How to Make Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Sewer Manhole Covers!

Hey party peeps!

It’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Week over here! Today I’m sharing how to make Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Sewer Manhole Covers. Super easy and so inexpensive! I used them to create a fabulous backdrop wow-factor AND as plate chargers on the kid’s dining table. In my Trend Alert earlier this month on HWTM I shared how TMNT were making a HUGE comeback! There are TMNT parties popping up all over the web right now. If you missed it, CLICK HERE TO SEE THE NINJA TURTLE PARTY  with party details including the dining table with turtle shell chairbacks!

CLICK HERE TO SEE HOW TO MAKE THOSE NINJA TURTLE SHELLS

CLICK HERE TO SEE HOW TO MAKE THE NINJA TURTLE SEWER CENTERPIECES

CLICK HERE TO SEE HOW TO MAKE THE NINJA TURTLE PIZZA BOXES

It all started with my 10 year old daughter Faith requesting a TMNT party this year for her birthday! WHAT??? My 16 year old son was into TMNT so I was surprised to hear they are making a comeback! And boy, are they! The first step was to design a custom ninja turtle printables set that didn’t use any of the licensed characters! You can check out our AMAZING Exclusive Ninja Turtles Personalized Printables AVAILABLE NOW IN OUR SHOP HERE!

For this post, I had the AMAZING talents of my newest member to the Soiree Event Design team, Katie Driver! She and I came up with some fabulous decor ideas and then she went to town creating these awesome DIY projects for the party taking ordinary items and making them EXTRAORDINARY! Super easy that even I can do them! Whenever I create party decor, I have a RULE OF 3’s. If a project has more than 3 steps and more than 3 supplies…I’m usually not going to do it and will resort to buying something…don’t judge!

Lucky for me, creating these manhole covers fit within my 3 step & 3 supply rule! Yay! It’s simple…Here we got creative transforming an ordinary item like a plastic bucket lid into a WOW-FACTOR wall backdrop and plate chargers!  

HOW DID SHE DO THAT?

HERE’S WHAT YOU’LL NEED:
• black plastic 5 gallon bucket lid (available at your local hardware store for less than $2 each)
• Metallic silver spray paint
• sandpaper
• Ninja Turtle printable Plate Inlays (available here)

HERE’S HOW YOU DO IT!

Step 1: CLEAN & PAINT THE PLASTIC LID!
Wipe lid clean of any residue or dust. Paint the lid with the metallic silver spraypaint. When painting plastic, light, thin coats are best. This will result in an even coat with no runs. Make sure to hold the spray can 8”-12” away from the lid and build layers as they dry. NOTE: we used a black lid, but you may also use a white lid if you can’t find black. And…yes…you can buy lids separately from the bucket…who knew?!

GIRLFRIEND TIP: When spray painting an object that is flat, it helps to paint it on an elevated surface. Here we put each lid on top of a paper cup which made it much easier.

Step 2: ROUGH IT UP WITH SANDPAPER!
Once the lid has dried completely, use sandpaper to gently rough up the lid in some places to expose some of the black plastic below the paint giving it a rough, grundgy look.

GIRLFRIEND TIP: Be sure to only rough up only a few spots to give the piece a weathered, grundgy look.

Step 3: Add a printable plate inlay!
Print and cut out the printable plate inlay that comes with the Ninja Turtle Printable package and adhere it to the center of the lid with a glue dot.

GIRLFRIEND TIP: Use hot glue if you are going to use these on the wall to ensure the printable doesn’t fall off of the lid once they are hung.

NOW GET CREATIVE AND USE THEM IN COOL WAYS!

CREATE A SEWER MANHOLE COVER WALL BACKDROP!
Adhere 9 lids onto an empty wall using Command 3M wall strips (removable) in 3 rows of 3 behind your dining table or other display table.

GIRLFRIEND TIP: It looks better if you only use the printable inlay on 2 of the lids and not all of them as shown.

CREATE PERSONALIZED CHARGER PLATES WITH EACH GUEST’S NAME!
Print and cut out each personalized plate inlay and adhere to the center of the lid with a glue dot. You can color coordinate each charger to the personalized printable placecards to compliment the colors of each of the Ninja Turtles. DETAILS…DETAILS!!!  Custom plate inlays are available here.

GIRLFRIEND TIP: Chargers are NOT food safe! Be sure to use clear plates on top of the chargers to eat on so you can still see the fabulous graphics and you look like you spent a fortune on custom plates!

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I hope this idea has inspired you to create you own Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle party decorations! Be sure to tune in next week for the rest of the party pics featuring our TMNT Pizza Favor Bar, Sewer Cupcake Stand and Photo Booth!

Want to see more of our TMNT party pics…click here!

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Cheers!
Tonya