We're celebrating the Kentucky Derby this year by making sure most of the contents in our rainy-day craft box end up in the belly of the vacuum cleaner. After finally finding something to do with all those mateless socks that we can never quite bring ourselves to throw away - just in case! - we thought a homemade horseshoe picture frame was a nice compliment to mini-hobby horses.
This is a pretty basic craft and yet, unsurprisingly, I still managed to make several really significant mistakes while guiding my toddler through it. Not to worry, I've taken one for the collective parenting team and will share a cache of tips to make sure your own crafting experience goes much more smoothly.
Project 2: Horseshoe Picture Frame
For this craft, you'll need paper, cardboard, ribbon, a photograph, glue or tape, and whatever assortment of decorative items you can find.
Step 1 is to draw the horseshoe. Step 1 is not to attempt to freehand a horseshoe if you don't know what a horseshoe actually looks like. If that sounds like you, I've got you covered with a printable to trace right here. Otherwise, you might spend this weekend casually mentioning to your out-of-town guests that you're a longtime fan of Derby University. Not that I'm speaking from experience or anything.
Next, cut the cardboard and photograph down to horseshoe size and mount the photograph to the cardboard with glue or tape. I was worried that our moody resident artist might want to embellish the photograph with her own creative signatures, so I opted to do this part last instead. It wasn't the end of the world, but it did make things a bit more difficult than necessary.
Once the picture is down, glue the horseshoe as the final border layer on top to create the frame and decorate accordingly. We opted for markers, a random assortment of stickers, and colorful pom-poms.
This kid is hard at work.
After this, we ended up cutting out the cardboard backing from the center of the horseshoe and taping our photograph to the back of the horseshoe border itself. Then we punched two holes at the top to secure our ribbon hook, which we elected to adorn with bells because when a toddler is in charge of aesthetics, THERE ARE NO RULES.
It's absolutely hideous, but we'll treasure it for always.
Read about our first Derby toddler craft, mini-hobby horses, here.
Did you make this with your toddler? We want to see! Tweet us photos of your own horseshoe frames or other crafts you're making in honor of this year's Derby.
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Photo Credit: Kirsten Clodfelter
