Fire Horse DIY – Chinese Zodiac 2026 | Cardboard Sculpture Tutorial

Posted by Raminta Sorokin on January 24, 2026

Fire Horse Craft – Chinese Zodiac 2026

Since 2026 is the Year of the Fire Horse according to the Chinese zodiac, I decided to start the year by creating a fire horse sculpture as my first craft of 2026.

real life horse with crest and tail looking like fire

I’ve made a horse before, but I never created a stencil for it. That’s because my creations are usually one of a kind, and I don’t make them for mass production. However, I understand that my free-form method can be challenging for many people—especially when it comes to making animals.
So this time, I created a stencil to help define the base shape and make the process more accessible. I’m also planning to make a unicorn in the future, so this stencil will definitely come in handy again.

👉 Full step-by-step tutorial is available on my YouTube channel:

The Base

Use my stencils (you’ll find them at the end of the page) to trace the shapes onto cardboard. This step can be a bit tricky because cardboard thickness varies. I used relatively thin cardboard, as it’s easier to cut small details.

Decide how many layers you need, then assemble the pieces using glue to form the basic structure of your fire horse.

Once the structure is ready, start covering the entire body with toilet paper roll cardboard. Tear the cardboard tubes into thin strips and wrap them around the body to build up volume and shape.
I highly recommend using reference images—searching for a 3D horse model works best—to help guide the proportions.

When you’re happy with the shape, cover the entire body with packing paper (newspaper works too). This helps smooth out the surface and unify the shape. I used school glue for this step.

Details

For the facial details, I used air-hardening modeling clay to shape the nose and lips.
For the eyes, I used craft doll eyes. I applied hot glue around them to build up the eye shape, then used wiping paper (napkins or any thin paper) to further refine the face and eye area.

Craft doll eyes on AMAZON: https://amzn.to/3LlKleI

Painting

This is the most satisfying part!

You can use any colors you like or already have. I started with a high-pigment base color to fully cover the body. Then I layered the fire colors, starting with red, followed by a black paint wash to enhance the details. After that, I added orange, and finally yellow, working from dark to light.

Around the nose and eyes, I like to use black metallic paint. The eyes were already black, but to make them shinier and more lifelike, I finished them with high-gloss acrylic varnish.

Fire Hair

The final step to truly transform this sculpture into a fire horse was creating the flame-like mane and tail.

I used construction paper in red, orange, and two shades of yellow. I cut small flame-shaped pieces to mimic flickering fire and added extra color variation using acrylic paint markers. (If you don’t have markers, regular acrylic paint works just as well.)

As a final detail, I cut clear beading thread (fishing line) into short pieces of varying lengths. I glued a tiny piece of paper to one end of each thread so it looks like sparks flying from the horse’s fiery mane and tail.

Creating a fire horse from cardboard and paper is not only a fun and engaging DIY project, but also a great way to unleash your creativity. Gather your materials, follow the steps, and enjoy bringing this mythical creature to life through your own artistic vision.