Enjoy making a lovely and traditional cardboard hobby horse. It's simple to create using recycling materials including a piece of cardboard from a box and cardboard tube from a roll of wrapping paper!
It makes a fantastic costume prop and is wonderful for pretend play or for a farmyard-themed birthday party.
You will need:
- printer
- hobby horse template printable
- piece of cardboard, about 30cm x 28cm
- paint and paintbrush
- holepunch
- ball of wool
- cardboard tube - I used one from a roll of wrapping paper
- pencil
- sticky tape
- scissors or small craft knife
- 70cm-length of ribbon to decorate, optional
Tip: If you don't have a printer then you can draw your own hobby horse head directly on the cardboard.
How to make:
- Print out the hobby horse head template. (There are 2 pages in total.)
- Stick the pages together side by side, matching the lines of the horse's nose as shown above. Cut the template out.
- Draw your hobby horse template onto a piece of cardboard and cut it out.
- Paint your hobby horse's head and leave it to dry. Paint the second side and leave to dry.
- Add the eyes and nostrils on both sides and leave to dry.
- Using a hole punch, punch holes along the neck edge of the hobby horse as indicated on the template. You can add more holes if you prefer to have a thicker mane.
- Thread 60-cm lengths of wool through each hole and tie them to secure. I threaded about 10 lengths through each hole.
- Paint your cardboard tube. I painted mine in different bright colours but you could paint it all one colour or even leave unpainted if you prefer.
- Cut 2 slits on either side of one of the ends of the tube. The slits will need to be about 5cm long.
- Gently push the straight edge of the hobby horse's head into the slits of the tube. If the hobby horse head cardboard is too thick for the slits, simply cut the slits into more of a 'v-shape' to accommodate the cardboard's thickness.
- Tie a length of decorative ribbon around the tube (optional).
For more farmyard fun, why not colour in your own farmyard bookmark or make some sheep popcorn bags, perfect for farmyard-themed birthday parties too!
HOBBY HORSE TEMPLATEYou'll also find a wonderful selection of dressing up costumes in the shop which make perfect outfits for themed birthday parties and magical dressing up play too!
SHOP DRESSING UP COSTUMESLet's keep in touch!
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