How to Build Your Own Miniature Horse Cart
When decorating for the holidays, miniature horse carts can be beautiful additions to a holiday town scene. You can purchase miniature horse carts for your craft project, but you can also make one at home for a fraction of the cost. By making your own you can customize it as desired, as well as chose a color that will match your home's decor.
Things You'll Need
- Tall tissue box
- Utility knife
- Acrylic paint
- Paintbrush
- Measuring tape
- Dowel rods
- Hack saw
- Cup
- Glass
- Cardboard
- Pencil
- Craft glue
Instructions
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Cart
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1
Cut a tall tissue box in half with a utility knife. Cut across the middle of the box and remove the top half of it.
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2
Paint the inside and outside of the box with acrylic paints and a paintbrush with any color you desire. Allow the paint to completely dry.
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3
Cut two holes on each side of your cart at the bottom of the cart body, front and back, for your wheel axles. Each hole should be about a half inch in diameter and placed where you want your wheel axles to be. The holes on one side of the box must align with the holes on the other side of the box.
Axles
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4
Cut two pieces of quarter-inch-wide dowel rod about six inches long with your utility knife or a hack saw.
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5
Paint the dowel rods with acrylic paints and a paintbrush in the color you want your wheel axles to be. Allow the paint to completely dry.
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6
Insert a dowel rod through the hole on one side of the box, through the box and through the hole on the other side of the box. The dowel rod should stick out on each side of the box about one inch. Do the same thing with the other dowel rod and the other set of holes.
Wheels
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7
Turn a cup or glass upside down on a piece of cardboard. The mouth of the cup or glass should be as large as you want your wheels to be. Outline the mouth of the cup or glass with a pencil, forming a circle, and then repeat this process for the other three wheels.
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8
Cut the four wheels out with a utility knife, and then paint the wheels, front and back, with your chosen color with acrylic paints and a paintbrush. Allow the paint to dry.
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9
Draw a quarter-inch circle in the center of each wheel with a pencil and then cut out the circles with a utility knife.
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10
Push the wheels onto the ends of the dowel rods. The fit will be snug so push firmly until the wheels are secure on the dowel rods. Add a drop of transparent craft glue to each wheel, where the wheel meets the dowel rod, to hold the wheels in place, and let the glue dry.
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1
Tips & Warnings
Add reins to your miniature horse cart using shoestrings, yarn or thin leather strips. Any of these materials can be purchased at your local craft store. Then place one or two miniature plastic horses at the front of the cart and attach the reins to your horses with craft glue.
Paint your own personalized designs on your cart as desired.
