100% Recycled Home-Made Stick Horse Toy!

My name is Lilly, I am almost 8 years old and this is my first instructable.

I love art and animals. My sister really likes horses- so I decided to make her a toy horse (like we saw in the store) but made from cardboard and other things we found and recycled. We used an old cardboard wrapping paper tube for the stick and we used cardboard boxes, old candy wrappers for the horse hair and some rubber bands. We used some tape and a stapler.

My answers to the Make-To-Learn contest:

What did you make?
I made a toy stick horse for my little sister. I made it out of recycled items like old cardboard, candy wrappers, rubber bands and an old ribbon. We wanted to try to use only recycled items and nothing new.

How did you make it?
I first made a basic toy stick horse by bending an old wrapping paper tube over and coloring on it. Then I drew a horse head and cut it out of cardboard. I added old candy wrappers for hair. We used staples and rubber bands to attach the head to the cardboard tube.

Where did you make it?
I made this at a kitchen table. My dad helped cut out some of the thick pieces of cardboard.

What did you learn?
I learned that I can make cool things from trash. I also learned that I can have fun  by joining 2 things I like... art and animals. I like doing art work so being able to make a toy from art was very fun. I also learned that cutting out cardboard and making layers and drawing with a black marker- really makes the horses eyes and mouth stand out. I learned that I don't have to only get toys new from the store.

A wrapping paper tube can be used for the body or stick of the horse. We had 2 tubes and one slid over the other so that we could adjust it for big or little.

My dad ate a lot of candy so we used the left over brown wrappers for the horse hair. I cut them up into smaller pieces and taped them together to make the horse hair.

We also gathered some old cardboard boxes and pieces, some ribbon and some rubber bands. We tried to use only recycled things.

For the horse head- we looked in my sister's horse book or you could look on the internet. and it took a few times to make the right shape.  First we used a pencil to draw the face- then when I had it perfect I used a black marker to outline the face- then you just cut it out- I had my dad help cut out the thicker pieces of cardboard.

One thing we added after- that really makes it look nice- is cut our piece for the eyes and mouth in thick cardboard and then we stapled it to the face. This makes the mouth and eyes really standout.

To attach the horses head to the tube- we bent the tube over near the top of it.

We tried to tape the head to the cardboard tube but it would not stay. So then we stapled a rubber band to the back of the cardboard head. The tube slides right through the rubber band and it holds tight.

As you can see in the picture- we also cut a piece out of the tube so the rubber band really holds in place.

You could make the horse tail out of old ribbons.. we used another old wrapping paper tube. We followed the spiral in the tube and cut our a one inch strip.. it ended up being a long curly cardboard spiral. I cut out a few of these, cut some short.. then we stapled them together.

Then we used a few rubber bands to hold it into place and also stapled the tail to the cardboard tube so it will really hold.

After we finished it I gave the toy to my little sister. She loves horses and ponies. I also worked with her to color the face in more.