14 Fun St. Patrick's Day Crafts for Kids

Leprechaun Artist

Warning: This easy-to-make prop may give your child mischievous ideas. Here's how to make a leprechaun beard at home:

1. Find a beard template online or freestyle it.
2. Cut the shape from a piece of faux fur and a piece of corrugated cardboard (with the corrugations running vertically).
3. Glue the fur to the cardboard.
4. Place a bit of glue on the end of a bamboo skewer, then insert it into one of the center flutes of the cardboard.

Let the glue dry before employing the disguise.

Gold Nuggets and Shamrock Stones

All you need for this St. Patrick's Day craft (courtesy of Sustain My Craft Habit) are some rocks, paint, and a paintbrush. To make the gold nuggets, cover small or medium jagged rocks with gold metallic paint.

The shamrocks are slightly more difficult. To make them:

1. Grab a smooth rock.
2. Make three hearts with green paint, as shown (one facing right, one facing left, and one facing up).
3. Connect the hearts with a stem through the middle.

If desired, you can even add highlights to your shamrock with a lighter green paint color. Set these around the house or outside for decoration, or make a treasure hunt game with them to see who can find the most.

Rainbow Necklace

Not only will this St. Patrick's Day craft entertain your toddler or preschooler, it will also develop their fine motor skills. Simply cut multi-colored Twizzlers into 1-inch pieces, separate them by color, and string them onto a plastic beading string.

The original crafter, Mrs. Karle's Sight and Sound Reading, followed the colors of a rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple.

Spinning Shamrock

You won't need luck to get this St. Patrick's Day pinwheel to turn—just a puff of air. Use green origami craft paper to make, following these steps:

1. Download a pinwheel template, like the one on Arty Crafty Bee.
2. Use the template to cut the shape from a double-sided sheet of craft paper.
3. Fold an edge of each leaf section as marked on the template.
4. Press a tack through the center of the pinwheel and into the side of a pencil's eraser, leaving a bit of space so that the paper can turn freely.

Blow on the side of the shamrock for the best spin.

Paper Plate Tambourine

Get ready to make some music with this St. Patrick's Day tambourine! Red Ted Art gives instructions for two versions: a rainbow tambourine and a sparkly green tambourine with a shamrock-shaped window. Here's how:

1. Paint the bottoms of two paper plates and let them dry.
2. Cut a shamrock shape in one side of the plates.
3. Glue a piece of plastic over the shamrock cut-out.
4. Place a handful of plastic coins inside the two plates.
5. Glue two plates together.

Wait for the glue to dry then shake, shake, shake!

Ireland in a Jar

Ireland is known for its rolling green landscapes and grazing sheep. Recreate the whimsical scene with this clever St. Patrick's Day craft from Sadie Seasongoods by filling a mason jar with the following:

• Reindeer moss
• Faux moss stones
• Felted sheep
• Pieces of gravel to mimic stone walls

This jar makes a sweet, seasonal centerpiece that will last well beyond St. Patrick's Day.

No-Sew Shirt

This green T-shirt is the perfect St. Patrick's Day ensemble; your child can even wear it to school on March 17! Angela from About a Mom shows how to create the shirt with green felt in two colors, fabric glue, and scissors. Here's how:

1. Cut two pieces of green felt—a triangle for the top of the tie; a diamond shape for the bottom.
2. Glue the triangle felt to the collar of a green tee.
3. Glue the diamond shape under the triangle to complete the tie.

You can add details to the tie, like some stripes, by cutting out strips of felt in another shade of green if you like.

Lucky Charm

Legend has it that if a child hangs this banner from their door on St. Patrick's Day, leprechauns may leave gold coins in the pot during the night. Here's how to make the lucky banner:

1. Cut two of each of the letters in the word lucky from colored paper. (Ours are 3 inches high.)
2. Sandwich the matching letters around a length of string and secure them with a glue stick. Leave a couple of feet of excess string at each end of the banner.
3. Cut two matching pot shapes from black felt. Glue the shapes together along the sides and bottom. Let the glue dry.
4. Using the string at the banner's bottom and a tapestry needle, stitch across one layer of the pot's opening. Tie the end of the string to itself just below the letter Y, as shown. Tie a loop in the string above the L for hanging.

Felt Shamrock Puppets

Kelly from Typically Simple says these shamrock puppets can be repurposed as "lucky leprechaun wands"—how adorable! Start by creating friendly shamrocks out of green felt and craft supplies, then glue them to craft sticks with ribbon bow ties.

Finger Painted Rainbow

This rainbow art project (courtesy of Made with Happy) is an ideal St. Patrick's Day craft for toddlers or preschoolers. Start by creating a "pot of gold" from black construction paper and attaching it to the bottom corner of a white piece of paper. Then it's time to make a rainbow with colorful paint! Have your kids decide whether to use paint brushes or their fingers (just make sure the paint is safe for skin beforehand.)

Glad Hatters

Dish up a paper-plate party hat that can easily be customized for any occasion by following these instructions:

1. On a dinner-size paper plate, draw a circle about 1-3/4 inches in from the edge.
2. Fold the plate in half, then draw half of a shamrock shape along the fold inside the circle, with the base of the shape touching the line.
3. Cut out the shape and the head hole along the curved line.
4. Bend up the shape.
5. Have your child try on the hat, and widen the head hole as needed.
6. Decorate the hat with paint, crayon, markers, and glitter.

Marshmallow Rainbow

This is another St. Patrick's Day craft for preschoolers or toddlers. Draw a rainbow on paper; Allison McDonald at No Time for Flash Cards suggests adding squiggles of color as a guide for little ones. Then squirt some glue along the rainbow's arches and help your kid attach multi-colored mini marshmallows to it. Warning: They may sneakily eat a few marshmallows as they're crafting!

Leprechaun Handprint

To make this St. Patrick's Day craft for kids, you'll need to download the leprechaun template from Simple Everyday Mom. Assemble the leprechaun's face using the template, then trace your little one's hand on a piece of orange paper. They can cut out the handprint to use as the leprechaun's head; the fingers double as a shaggy beard! A buckled hat rounds out the project.

Swinging Shamrocks

To make swinging shamrocks, follow these instructions:

1. Cut four half-inch rings from a flattened cardboard tube, then cut through one of the folds on each ring.
2. For three of the rings, bend and glue the two ends to form a heart-shaped leaf.
3. Fold the fourth ring into a triangular stem and glue the ends together.
4. Glue the stem between two leaves, then glue on the third.
5. Paint the shamrock green.
6. When it's dry, hang it with fishing line or string.

These would look great in front of a window or over your child's bed.