Sweden – Quick Dala horse photo holder with glitter

Holding pic

I’ve been wanting to make a Dala horse since I saw that drawing of the “D is for Dala Horse” book. It’s such a sweet image and Nico loves horses, so I thought it could work well. Click here for more information on the origin and so on of the Dala horse. I thought for weeks… I came up with one, but way too labor intensive and complex for a 2.5 year old. I may still make it myself So in the end I came up with something really simple. All you need is thick cardstock (ours was too thin), 2 old fashioned wooden clothespins and decorating materials for your horse. As you can see on the cover of the book, the horse decorating is quite intricate, but we did our own version. I found a big pattern online and shrunk it to size, then I thickened the bottom of the legs so it would cover the clothespins.

I drew and cut 4 in one sheet and I scanned the pattern for you   I used white cardstock, but you can use any color or pattern you’d like. I gave Nico the choice of color, thinking he would pick acrylic paint of 1 color per horse and go with that, but nope he picked his Rainbow Art Kit, so I ran with it.

He picked a single color for papa’s horse and Nanielle (Danielle, Alex’ colleague) as well. Even though she likes green, when he sees purple he says Nanielle, he makes her only purple stuff too, lol. So after those 2 single colored horse were made, he wanted the big brush to do more colors at once and made a rainbow one for Ben (Alex’ colleague) and one for me! As long as I don’t look he makes me stuff

4 painted horses

Now the intricate decoration is WAY too difficult for him.

Glittering

So I asked him if he wanted to add decorations and he said gigger (glitter), of course! So I got the glue out and the glitter and helped him out with the glue (hard to squeeze alone), but he pushed my hand where he wanted, no problems. He, for some reason, made sure the butt, ear and nose of the horse got some lol. Once that was dry I used tacky glue and glued the wooden clothespins upside down (the clipping part toward the top/back of the horse).

4 standing horses

To make sure your horse stands straight put your pins standing with the glue on, on the table and stick the horse standing on the table that way your horse will stand straight

Holding pic

And we were done, so a very easy and quick craft (minus glue drying time).

If you do this, we’d LOVE to see a photo of it. Email it to us or post it on our Facebook page. We’d love to do a Facebook album, a Pinterest board and a page of your creations

Please check out our partner blogs and their Sweden ideas: Adventures In Mommydom, Creative Family Fun, Glittering Muffins, Juggling with Kids, Kitchen Counter Chronicles, Make, Do & Friends, Mom 2 Posh Little Divas, Mummymummymum, Rainy Day Mum, Red Ted Art, The Educators’ Spin On It and The Outlaw Mom!

 Please link up your Sweden dish and/or craft in our linky below, we would love to see it!

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