Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

Interested in doing a little holiday crafting? I don't know about you, but holidays always get me in the mood to turn on my creative powers. And when the budget is tight, what better way to decorate then to make your own using items found around the house. So let's get started with a fun little Leprechaun craft that uses construction paper, a toilet paper tube (or a paper towel tube cut in half....or fun length!) and some small crafting essentials, like glue or tape, scissors, some markers or crayons...and maybe some googly-eyes!!

Here's how cute he will be when we're finished:

Ok to start...Grab all the things I mentioned above. And since it's for St. Patrick's Day, grab only the colors you'll need. Orange, Green, and White.

Now select which color you want him to be wearing and measure out enough paper to cover the toilet paper role.

Cover the role and secure it with glue or tape. Let it dry if using glue.

Now to make the rim of his hat, I suggest using items you have handy to measure everything out. Since it needs to fit around the toilet paper role, you can trace the end of the tube with a pencil so you know what you need to cut out for it to fit. Then find another circle to use as a guide for the width of the hat rim. I used a tape role.

Then cut out the remaining circle and place it on your tube.

To give our wee little guy a happy face, I suggest making a circle, with yet again something you have to help make it easier. I used a bottle of glitter glue. I also recommend drawing on his mouth and nose and then coloring in whatever color you want this little guy to be.

Go ahead and attach your face below the brim of your hat and add some googly-eyes. If you don't have any handy, just draw them on before you glue on your face. You can also experiment with their size.

This cutie is starting to take shape. Now let's give him an orange beard. I suggest using the same thing you used to make the face, to make the shape of his beard. Only when you are cutting, make sure you cut out a little bit less so it fits snugly on top of his face. (Don't want any gaps!)

As you can see a little bit in the photo above, I made small cuts at an angle moving all the way around his chin. This is to make the paper look more like hair. Then you can shape it in whatever way you'd like, or crinkle some of them to add some texture. Then there's nothing left to do, but attach his wee little beard.

I think our leprechaun might like having some arms, so grab some scraps from the cuttings and find two that are similar in length. Color smaller scraps for hands and glue them in place.

You'll notice in addition to glueing on the arms, I took some time to decorate his hat. You can do whatever you like, add a clover, a buckle. I used a crayon to draw the strap and took a small scrap of construction paper to make the buckle.

Now you have your very own wee Leprechaun to decorate your house, give as a gift, or to do a little Irish Jig with come Saturday! Crafting is such good Craic!

If you don't have enough time to make a Leprechaun and you still want some decorations or cards, then here is a simple suggestion using the exact same materials.

To make the paper into a cute little folded circle here's what you need to do. Take a long, thin piece of paper and fold it into a fan. Then connect the opposite ends to one another and glue the sides together in the middle.

To make a Shamrock, I suggest drawing half of it on a folded piece of paper and to use hearts as my model. That way even if it isn't perfect, it is at least symmetrical.

Then put it all together!!

I hope you have a wonderful St. Patrick's Day! In a farewell note:

May the road rise to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back,
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
May the rains fall soft upon your fields,
And, until we meet again,
May God hold you in the hollow of His hand.