The image shows a completed Dala Horse project. The base color of the horse is red. There are designs throughout the body of the horse, painted in white, pink and different shades of greens and blues.

I have been obsessed with horses since I was 6 years old. I started taking riding lessons when I was 8 and got a horse of my own when I was 10. I competed in hunter/jumper until my freshman year of high school. If you follow me on Pinterest, you may have seen my horse-crazy-girl board named “i still dream of horses”. Needless to say, I still get starry-eyed whenever I am in close proximity to anything equine. So this Dala horse project is basically a mix of some of my favorite things:

horses ✓

lots of color ✓

my girls ✓

my husband ✓

recycled art material ✓

really awesome alt/indie/folksy holiday mix ✓

Remember how we filled our Advent Calendar with experiences that we could do as a family? Well, yesterday was make a holiday craft together day and this was the perfect project to do as a family.

Materials:

cardboard
utility knife (grownups only)
dot to dot markers
chalk markers
duct tape - blue, white, gold, red
acrylic paint - white, red, turquoise, teal blue

** Please note that we participate in the Amazon Affiliate program. This means if you purchase any of the products linked here we will receive a tiny sales commission at no additional cost to you. We only link to products we use and love. Your support helps us keep this site running - thank you!

1. Cut your box into square sections (the bigger the square, the bigger your horse).

2. Freehand your Dala horse shape or print a “Dala horse template” from the internet. If you want to make a big one, just adjust your ‘scale’ settings on your printer. You will probably have to print it out in sections and piece it back together like a puzzle, but you will get a consistent shape that you can then replicate.

3. Cut your Dala shape with a sharp utility knife.

4. Decorate! We used different materials for each of our horses.

Harper (age 5) used dot markers

There are two side by side photos. On the left there is a small child in green top and red & white striped leggings. She is using a dot marker to design her brown cardboard Dala horse. The photo on the right shows a close up of the Dala horse.

This image shows one version of a finished Dala horse. The base color of the horse is brown. The horse was given details in blue, pink, yellow, white, orange and green.

This image shows one version of a finished Dala horse on dark grey background. The base color of the horse is brown. The horse was given details in blue, pink, yellow, white, yellow, orange and green.

Riley (age 10) used chalk markers

The image shows a young artist's hands holding a white chalk marker as the artist paints details on a cardboard Dala horse's body. On the right, there is another close up photo of pink and blue details on the same horse.

This image shows another version of a completed Dala horse. This horse was designed with chalk marker in various colors. Details were drawn in pink, blue, white, green and red.

DIY Cardboard Dala HoThis image shows another version of a completed Dala horse on dark grey background. This horse was designed with chalk marker in various colors. Details were drawn in pink, blue, white, green and red.rse 7

Paul and I did a collaborative horse with duct tape and paint

He taped:

This is process photo of another version of the Dala horse. You can see an artist applying thin pieces of red, white and blue tape to detail the Dala horse they are working on.

I painted:

This photo shows an artist's hand holding a paintbrush as they paint details on the dala horse. The colors of those details are blue, pink, white and green.

We decided that we wanted our horse to have a faded red color so I painted on diluted acrylic and rubbed it with a baby wipe, which created a red stain for our horse’s coat: