How about making handmade New Year’s cards for your New Year’s greetings? Spending time with your children drawing horse designs or creating cut-and-paste collages will make wonderful memories for both kids and adults.
Here, we’ll introduce a variety of horse-themed ideas—from simple methods that use familiar materials and are easy for elementary school children to enjoy, to ideas with a bit more creative flair.
The moments when ideas expand as you work with your hands are great opportunities to nurture your child’s creativity.
Send warm New Year’s greetings with a one-of-a-kind card made just for the occasion!
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Let’s make handmade New Year’s cards with horses! A collection of fun ideas even elementary school kids can do (1–10)
Draw with colored pencils! Cute horse
With colored pencils, you can create a wide range of expressions—from realistic horses to cute, character-like ones.
If you want to draw a cute horse with colored pencils, this method is recommended! First, sketch the overall outline with a light beige tone, then color the body with a darker brown pencil.
When you do, be sure to leave areas like the eyes (or any parts you want to render in a different color) uncolored.
Once you fill in the smaller parts that need different colors, you’re done.
Making the overall shape rounder, aiming for a character-like feel, or adding rosy cheeks will enhance the cuteness even more!
Cute for New Year’s cards, too! Horse origami
Here’s an idea for making a horse using two sheets of origami paper.
First, we’ll make the horse’s head.
Fold the paper into a triangle, then fold the left and right corners up to meet the top corner.
Next, flip the paper upside down and again fold the left and right corners to the top corner.
Open the folded left and right corners outward and fold them back so their width is halved to create the ears.
Turn the paper over; use the top corner to form the mane, and make a valley fold on the top layer of the bottom corner to create the nose.
Fold the remaining corner inward to refine the outline, and the face is complete! For the body, the steps are the same as making a “trick boat” up to the midway point.
Make two boats, one on the top and one on the bottom.
Use the two corners of the top boat to form the legs, and the right corner of the bottom boat for the tail.
Tuck the remaining left corner of the bottom boat inward, then fold the whole thing in half along the center line, and it’s done.
If you stack and glue the two parts together, it adds thickness; for use in New Year’s card designs, it’s better to use a printed version to keep it flat.
New Year’s cards with a horse motif made using 100-yen shop stamps
@kururistamp How to make a simple and cute 2026 New Year’s card using only stamps♪StampDaiso#New Year's cardHow to makeTranslation
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At 100-yen shops, you can find a variety of stamps that are perfect for New Year’s cards.
By combining these stamps well and being creative with your color choices, you can make beautiful cards! If you want a gradient with a single stamp, apply the ink to the stamp little by little.
When you want to change the color you’re stamping with, press the stamp onto scrap paper until the previous color no longer transfers to help prevent color mixing.
Even with the same stamp, you can express different horses by changing the colors and where you stamp, so try out various colors and stamping techniques!
Horse origami New Year’s card!
This origami piece combines an ema plaque and a horse’s face into one design.
There’s a space on the ema where you can write, so you can add New Year’s greetings or a short message.
Because the idea involves detailed steps like making creases and small cuts, it’s suitable for upper elementary school students and older.
Start by making the horse, then shape the remaining part into the ema.
If 15 cm origami paper feels difficult to fold, use slightly larger paper.
If you plan to attach it to a New Year’s card as-is, it might be too thick or heavy to mail, so consider using a printed version instead.
Let’s draw a great horse using only circles!
When you try to draw a horse realistically, it’s complex and difficult, right? But by combining lots of circles, you can easily capture and draw the overall form! The key is to think of the horse’s body as many separate parts.
Divide the torso into front and rear sections, and break the legs down into the forearm, joints, and even the hooves, representing each with circles.
Adjust the circles—elongate or enlarge them—according to each part.
Once you’ve mapped out everything with circles, refine each part into the horse’s actual shapes.
Erase the unnecessary guidelines, add the soft hair of the mane and tail, and you’re done! Try using this as practice before drawing one for your New Year’s cards.
New Year’s postcard with a horse illustration
Let’s try drawing a horse using ellipses.
It even explains how to draw those tricky legs, so it’s easy for beginners at illustrated letters to give it a try.
Use ellipses to represent the front part of the torso and the rump.
The key for the rump is to leave a one-ellipse gap from the body and draw it slightly higher.
For the legs, imagine a long, slender “S” and draw them extending up and down from the joints.
Once you master these two points, you’ll be able to draw horses in various poses, like a side view or a rearing horse!
A horse drawn on 100-yen store drawing paper!
If you’re worried about drawing directly on New Year’s postcards, why not first try sketching the picture you have in mind on drawing paper? Since it’s just a trial sketch, supplies from the 100-yen shop—drawing paper, pencils, and colored pencils—are perfectly fine! Instead of forcing yourself to match the postcard size, try drawing it large once; it will help your ideas expand.
If you end up liking your rough sketch, you can scan it with a printer and paste it onto the postcard as is—highly recommended.
A horse running, a horse grazing, a parent and foal snuggled together—use your favorite image of a horse to add a personal touch to your New Year’s greetings!