C is for Crafts: My Little Pony Inspired Stick Ponies
My oldest daughter turned four this past weekend. Gone are the days of me being able to plan out a cute little birthday party based on the theme of my choice. She definitely had an opinion this year and it had to be a My Little Pony party and nothing else! I actually found this to be a fun theme to work with and came up with many cute ideas for her party. I had seen a few stick ponies made out of pool noodles on Pinterest, but really want to make a version that looked like My Little Pony stick ponies as favors for this party. Here is what I came up with:
Supplies
Foam pool noodles
Ribbon
Felt squares in coordinating colors
Needle and thread or sewing machine
Pompoms or tissue paper
White cardstock
Scissors
Hot glue gun
Straight pins
Instructions
Body
Begin by removing any stickers or tags from the pool noodles. Carefully bend about 1/4 of the pool noodle over to form the head and secure with a ribbon. I used a iridescent purple ribbon and tied it in a bow in the back. It gives the appearance of a fancy bridle over the pony’s nose. Any kind of string, yarn or ribbon would work – just make sure to tie it securely.
The image above shows the progression from pool noodle to finished stick pony to help you get a visual of how to put them together.
Ears
After you have created the head of the pony, it is time to add the ears. I made the ears ahead of time so that we could just easily attach them during the craft. I cut offset triangles of coordinating felt, sliding the top layer down to give the effect of the inner ear. I folded each of the bottom corners over to create a little pocket. I used my sewing machine to quickly zigzag across the bottom and then cut off the excess material in a straight line just under the stitching. Don’t get fussy about this step. I really didn’t measure or pin anything. Just cut, fold, stitch, trim.
When it was time to attach the ears to the pool noodle, I carefully stuck a straight pin under the top layer of felt and pushed it into the foam to secure it. The ears felt a little too heavy to just glue on. If you are nervous about leaving the pins in, I would at least pin them on while you make sure the glue is dry and the ears have adhered.
Mane
Once you have the ears attached to the top of the pony’s head, it is time to add the mane. I found these awesome tissue pompoms in a garland kit in the party aisle at Target. Each box had six pompoms in it and they were the perfect size for this project. The garland kits also came in many different colors. So fun! You could also use plastic pompoms or cut your own hair out of tissue paper. I just loved the ease of using pre-made tissue poms! Using my trusty hot glue gun, I glued one pompom down the nose of the pony and then two more down the back of its neck. We alternated between hot pink and light pink to give some dimension. Below is a picture of the garland packaging and what the poms I used looked like before gluing them on.
Eyes
After the mane is attached to the stick pony, it is time to add the eyes. I enlarged a My Little Pony graphic and isolated one eye. I then made a mirror image of the eye and printed the pair out on white cardstock using my home color printer. Again, I had the eyes all cut out and ready to go before the party began to help make the craft time go more smoothly. I am attaching my file for the pony eyes as a free printable that you can use if you would like. Be advised that these images are not perfect. Some of the edges are a little jagged, but I thought they looked just fine once I cut them out. I also chose to cut off the eyelashes on the side to speed up my cutting time. I attached an eye to each side of the pony head using a dab of hot glue. Make sure you have the correct eye on each side of the head so that the eyelashes point back toward the body.
Download Pony Eyes Printable HERE.
Cutie Marks
Because these are My Little Pony stick ponies, we added a “cutie mark” to the stick of each pony with a dab of hot glue as a finishing touch. I searched online for free printables. I found some cupcake toppers that I enlarged and cut out in circles to use as the cutie marks. The girls really thought this was cool. I cut out several sets of each so there would be no arguing over who got what cutie mark.
This project was fun and easy for the kids to make during the party and was a huge hit. It was so cute to see the girls galloping around on their stick ponies during the party. The supplies were not expensive and they made a fun and unique party favor. Let me know if you try making My Little Pony stick ponies with your little ones. I would love to see pictures and hear how they turn out. Happy trails, my friends!
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