3 Quick and Cute St. Patrick's Day Crafts

St. Patrick's Day, or "Green Day" as my two-year old calls it, has nearly arrived and our household is excited to celebrate. I'm here to inspire you with easy and fun St. Patrick's Day crafts for your children to enjoy! These simple, yet creative crafts are appropriate for all ages.

Handprint Shamrock

This craft requires little time, which is a total win in my book; especially since my son's attention span can be fleeting.

What you need:

• Paper shamrocks that are large enough for handprints. You may even want room to do a few handprints within the shamrock.
• Finger paint, gold glitter or decorations like rainbow and leprechaun stickers.
• Scissors, and paper if you decide to print out your own shamrocks.
   

Instructions:

1. Place your shamrocks, paint, and decorations on a kid-friendly craft space. We use our deck when it's warm and our garage when it's cold. I have an old plastic picnic table for my son to use and this way he can get messy.
2. For little ones, tape the shamrock to the surface so it doesn't move around during painting and decorating.
3. Allow your child to paint the palm of their hand – you may need to help them with this. My son loves the way the paint feels on his hand so we really have fun!
4. Place the palm of their hand into the shamrock and allow to dry.
5. Decorate the shamrock with glitter, stickers, or any other fun items you have on hand.
6. You can find a special place to hang the shamrock for your child to admire their artwork.
    

Cookie or Pancake Decorating

Flexibility is key when it comes to this craft. If your children like to bake and you have the time, cooking together can be a great tradition. If time isn't on your side, pick up yummy sugar cookies from the store and focus solely on decorating. You can also do this with pancakes – just skip the frosting and add green food coloring to the batter. Try these St. Patrick's Day-themed ideas for decorating:

• Provide a few festive suggestions that you or your child can draw on the cookie. You can help them "draw" with icing to make a rainbow, leprechaun hat, cross, or shamrock. If that proves to be tricky, let them simply ice the cookie and add any yummy decorations on top.
• My personal favorites to use: green icing, rainbow gum drops or jelly beans, shamrock sprinkles, and green candy.

Remember, there's no right or wrong way to do this craft – have fun and let your child's creativity shape the activity.

Tie-Dyed St. Patty's Day Shirt

What you need:

• A shirt to tie-dye. There's no need to buy a shirt especially when your kiddos stain so many! Just pick one that you're ready to part with. Cotton does work best.
• Fabric dye – you can buy this at a craft store or Amazon Prime it like I did! You also need salt to add to the dye bath.
• A big ole plastic container that can get stained. You can also use stainless steel or enamel. We used an old plastic bucket that we use to wash our car and it worked fine.
   

Instructions:

1. Mix your dye in your container (a three gallon one is ideal). The dye will have instructions for you to follow.
2. Add a cup of salt to the dye and stir.
3. Place rubber bands around the shirt – you can get fancy with designs here, but just placing the rubber bands in a few spot works.
4. The shirt goes into the water for about 10-30 minutes and you stir it occasionally. My son had a blast stirring with a big spoon. I even gave him tongs to see what was happening.
5. Ring out the shirt and rinse it in warm water, giving a final rinse in cool. Hang to dry.
    

I hope these craft ideas inspire you to celebrate St. Patrick's Day with your family! It may still be freezing in New England, but March does mean that Spring is coming. In the meantime, here are some spring-inspired crafts to help get your kids excited for the warmer weather.

Share your photos – we want to see what you did!