You don’t need an excuse to turn a Saturday afternoon into a crafting session with the kids, but Saint Patrick’s Day does offer plenty of festive fodder, including shamrocks, leprechauns, and rainbows.
Handprint Leprechaun
Perfect for toddlers and preschoolers, this craft by Messy Little Monster is messy indeed, but worth the effort. Start by painting your child’s hand orange and adding a circle of skin-colored paint to the palm. Next, place your child’s hand on paper or a mini canvas. When you lift your child’s hand off the paper, you’ll notice the circle will be the leprechaun’s face, while the fingers represent the hair and beard. Complete the picture by painting a green hat on the leprechaun’s head and adding a smile and eyes with a fine black Sharpie.
Easy Green Yarn Vase
Older kids—and even adults – will enjoy this craft by Modge Podge Rocks. Start with a glass jar and, working in sections, generously coat the jar with Modge Podge. Next, wrap emerald green yarn around the jar, starting at the top of the jar and working your way down. Once you have the whole jar covered, you could leave it at that. Or, you could apply more Modge Podge and glue on more yarn in a more organic crisscross fashion. Let dry completely and fill with white tulips, yellow daisies, or the flowers of your choice.
Shamrock Sprouts
Remember Chia Pets? You can make your own shamrock version, thanks to a clever idea. Start by drawing a shamrock on an ordinary green sponge, get the sponge wet, then cut it out. Make sure the sponge is still damp and scatter a layer of lettuce, spinach, or broccoli seeds on the sponge, gently poking the seeds into the holes. Place the sponge in a sunny window and keep it moist by misting it with a spray bottle. Little ones will find it interesting that seeds can grow without dirt—and enjoy seeing the spouts grow.
Saint Patty’s Day in a Jar
This craft, courtesy of Babble, makes a great gift—or just a fun activity to do with kids of any age. Start with a Mason jar and a whole bunch of sweet stuff like gold coins, Skittles, and mini marshmallows. Start by putting five gold “coins” in the bottom of the jar. Next, dump your Skittles out and sort by color. Layer your Skittles in the pattern of a rainbow—purple, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red. Top with mini marshmallows (the cloud at the beginning of the rainbow), seal the jar, and complete the look with a cheery green ribbon and a tag that says “Saint Patty’s Day in a Jar” or “Lucky Rainbow in a Jar.”
Leprechaun Hats
You’ll need green construction paper, Elmer’s Glue, a glue stick, and gold glitter to make these festive leprechaun-sized top hats. These hats make cute party decorations—and are also perfect for hiding tiny treasures. You can find full instructions at Classic Play.
Sparkly Lime Jell-O Play Dough
Plain Vanilla Mom is the genius behind this anything-but-plain play dough. You’ll need 1 cup white flour, 1 cup warm water, 2 tablespoons salt, 2 tablespoons cream of tartar, two tablespoons cooking oil, 1 3-ounce pack of lime Jell-O—and lots of bright green glitter. Mix all of the ingredients (except the glitter) together in a small saucepan and cook over medium heat until it thickens into a ball of dough. Once it’s done, place the dough onto a floured cutting board and wait for it to cool (about 20-30 minutes). Next, let your child knead the dough, adding in up to a half cup of additional flour, until it’s not sticky anymore. Finally, add your green glitter. If you’d like to amp up the color a bit more, you can also add green food coloring.
Happy Saint Patrick’s Day from Storage-Mart
At StorageMart, we’re proud to serve the communities we call home. And, like everyone else, we’re also Irish one day a year, which is why we’re happy to bring you these fun ideas for crafting with your kids.