Summertime calls for playing games outside! We love the idea of combining an indoor activity like crafting with an outdoor activity. This way you have the best of both worlds. For this month’s collection, I thought it would be fun to create a felt horseshoe game that your whole family can play. 

Along with the pattern for the horseshoes, this project includes an iron-on design to decorate your game stakes and to make a personalized tote bag for your game pieces.

Gather your neeeighbors for outdoor fun

This classic lawn game is a great one for all ages. You can play with just two people or form teams. And if you need some more people, your neighbors might want to join in on the fun! 

Skill level: Beginner

Stitches used: Blanket stitch. Need more guidance? Check out our free embroidery guide.

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Tools

• Craft Scissors
• Detail Scissors
• Cricut Maker or Silhouette Cameo 4 (recommended for vinyl pieces)
• Cricut EasyPress or Iron
• Clover Embroidery Needles
• Clover Embroidery Threader

Materials

• Wool Blend Felt — 4 pieces in Brass
• DMC Embroidery Floss — Very Dark Yellow Beige (167)
• Poly Pellets
• Cotton Denim Tote
• Siser Easyweed HTV — Pink, Cream, and Dark Gold
• M7 Vinyl — Gold Metallic and Peach Blossom
• Oracle 651 Vinyl — Imitation Gold
• Wood Paper Towel Holder — 2 Holders
• Wood Chargers
• B-7000 Glue

Instructions

1. Gather your craft tool and materials. Then download the pattern below.
2. Cut the horseshoe pattern from wool blend felt, using scissors or your cutting machine.
3. Cut the nail details out of heat transfer vinyl, using your cutting machine, and transfer them to your felt with an EasyPress or iron.
4. Stitch two horseshoe pieces together with a blanket stitch and embroidery floss.
5. Leaving both ends open, fill your horseshoes with poly beads, then stitch to close both ends. This creates a weighted bean bag that is fun to toss.
6. To make the horseshoe game stakes movable and easy to store, just glue wooden dowel paper towel holders to matching wood charger plates. You can then add decorative stripes in different colors of vinyl and numbers to help the players add up their points for each toss by where the beanbag horseshoe lands on the wooden stakeholder. All of these vinyl pieces are part of the template below.
7. The last handy piece to this game is a denim storage bag with a fun custom design created with heat transfer vinyl.

Explore More

Love this idea? Check out some of our other DIY outdoor activities, like our nature scavenger hunt, travel tic-tac-toe game, and our bingo game. You can also find more crafts your kids will love!