This super cute rustic Christmas horseshoe craft was developed as part of a project to raise money for Texas Therapeutic Riding Center in Wylie, Texas. We sold a kit to make this cute craft, and all of the sales went to the center. Some of you may have one of those very kits and be here specifically for the tutorial that goes along with it, but others may be here because it’s adorable and you have a stack of horseshoes just itching to be turned into something cute! So let’s get crafting!
Buffalo Check Rustic Christmas Horseshoe Craft
One of the things I love about this craft is that you can get crazy with it. You can swap out the ribbons, the gold bells for silver bells, paint the horseshoe, use whatever cute artificial Christmas plants you can find. The sky is the limit. I am sharing the exact supplies we used in the instructions below, but please know you can make variations as you wish.
Also, I used wire and hot glue. I’ve also made this same craft using only hot glue, so if you don’t have the wire but you do have a glue gun, you should be fine!
Rustic Christmas Horseshoe Craft
This adorable rustic Christmas hanging horseshoe is perfect for the holidays!
Materials
- Horseshoe, any size, cleaned
- 4.5' of ribbon (I used 1.5" wired ribbon)
- Artificial Christmas Pine Arrangements (you can use any cute artificial arrangements or flowers you have)
- 3-6 jingle bells
- 2 6" pieces of 20 gauge wire
- 4 4.5" pieces of 22 gauge wire
Tools
- Glue Gun
- Scissors
Instructions
If necessary, clean your horseshoe and remove any nails. You can do so by soaking in hot soapy water and then scrubbing with a coarse bristled brush. You can also use a rust remover to prep your shoe if you'd like.
Thread your ribbon through the top holes in the shoe, loosely wrapping it around the shoe a couple of times. It's important to keep it loose for now so you can easily work around the ribbon. You will pull it tight at the end.
Fold your 20 gauge wire in half. Use it to attach the pine arrangement to your shoe. I threaded it through the bottom holes of the shoe and then wrapped it around the stem until it was very tightly attached to the shoe. You may need to trim off some of the pine needles from the back of the arrangement to make it lie flat. It will depend on your particular arrangement and also your preferences.
Next, use your 22 gauge wire to attach the bells to the toe of the shoe. Depending on the size of your shoe, you might have three bells or up to six. You can also use a dab of hot glue once you have them wired down, to keep them from slipping.
Now pull the ribbon tightly through the holes, wrapping it over the stem and any loose wires from the bells. If you need to, use a dab of glue to secure the ribbon, or bells, or stem. You may not need glue for this, or you may do the entire craft using glue instead of ribbon. It's up to you.
Tie the ends in a bow. Use your scissors to snip off any ratty ends (they may get shredded as you pull them through the holes of the shoe, which is partially why we use such a long ribbon...so you can snip off the ends!). I like to cut the ends on a diagonal. You can then cut off another piece of ribbon to wrap around the center of your bow, folding it in half width-wise if necessary to make it fit. Measure before you cut as the piece you need is probably longer than you would think just by eyeballing it (ask me how I know, ha). Use a dab of glue to secure.
You will probably notice that when you try to hang the shoe, it will tip forward from the ribbon. I used hot glue on the back of each side of the shoe to attach the ribbon to the shoe. This will solve the problem, and you can now hang your horseshoe!
Notes
Here are some fun ways you can customize this craft:
- Use different ribbon (burlap, red and green plaid, and gold are some fun options)
- Paint your horseshoe (a gold horsehoe with silver bells and red and green plaid ribbon would be so pretty)
- Use cute Christmas flowers or pieces from a garland instead of the pine.
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