I’m so excited to share this Chinese New Year project with you because it features original artwork by Lexie! The girls and I sat down to brainstorm a fun way to celebrate the Year of the Horse and we came up with the idea of a necklace.
So while Lily and I dug through our art cabinet for supplies, Lexie drew a horse for the necklace. (Isn’t he sweet?)
The nice thing about this project is that you can make your horse necklace as simple or as fancy as you’d like. I happened to be near a JoAnn Crafts store this week so I picked up some Asian-inspired beads, but the necklaces would have worked just as well with the plain, solid-colored beads we already had at home.
We made two versions of the horse necklace: one version uses pop bottle caps and the other uses crystal drops. For both versions, start by printing out Lexie’s Chinese New Year Horses. If you use the bottle caps, all you have to do is cut out a horse and stick him in the bottle cap using whatever you’ve got around: glue, glue dots, poster tack, you name it. Depending on the size of your bottle caps, you might have to trim the horse a bit.
If you use crystal drops, just give the drops a quick squirt of clear spray adhesive before sticking the horses to them.
As for the beads, add as many as you’d like. Just make sure they have holes big enough to fit over your chains! Yes, I learned this the hard way.
This project is for older kids who won’t choke on the beads, of course. (Although I can’t promise that your five-year-old won’t stick a bead up his nose, Andrew.) But we have another fun project planned that will be great for all ages, so please check back in next week!
Wow, Lexie your art work is incredible, and all of you made beautiful necklaces. What fun to be so creative together. Reminds me of making things with Grandma Too-too. Great memories.
I was showing off your art work to a friend. She was very impressed and remarked on the facial detail. From your very proud G.