St. Patrick's Day Crafts for Kids

St. Patrick's Day is just around the corner and people are starting to decorate! Here are some fantastic, fun, and easy St. Patrick's Day crafts for kids (and kids at heart!) to help celebrate.

Irish Flag Safety Pin Brooch

Materials:

Six size four safety pins, gold colored
One 2 and 1/4 inche coil-less safety pin, gold colored (at the craft store!)
Pony beads in orange, white, and green
Small shamrock sequin or three green sequins glued together in a shamrock shape
Glue (I prefer Aileen's Tacky Glue)

Procedure:

On two of the small safety pins, place six green beads each. Put six white beads on two more of the small pins, and six orange beads on the remaining two. Close each pin.

Spread the coil-less pin open and thread the loops of the beaded pins on. Start with the two orange beaded pins, then the two white, and finally, the two green.

Close the coil-less pin and glue the sequin shamrock to the bent end.

To wear, pin it to your clothing so that the green beads are to the left of anybody facing you.

Cost: You will need to purchase both types of pins, and the beads and sequins, in packages that will range from about $1 to $3, but each package will make quite a few brooches and other projects. The cost of one brooch will be less than 50 cents.

Claddagh Door Decoration

Materials:

Skin colored craft foam
Red craft foam
Long gold tone metallic pipe cleaner
Glue (either tacky glue or low-melt hot glue)

Procedure:

Trace your hand twice onto the skin colored foam. Carefully cut out the hands.
Draw a heart shape on the red foam and cut it out. The heart should be as wide as your hand cut-outs are.

Lay the hands down on your work surface so that the index and middle fingers are pointing toward each other. Lay the heart over the hands. You want the thumbs to just be touching the top bumps of the heart, and the tips of the middle and index fingers to be slightly under the heart. Once you have worked out the proper layout, lift the heart up and apply glue to the middle and index fingertips, then lay the heart back into place and press the parts together. Let the glue dry.