First St. Paddy's Day Craft

Looking for an easy and inexpensive kid's St. Patrick's Day craft? I found this at Hobby Lobby and thought it would be perfect with our simple centerpiece this year.

We didn't glitter-it-up because I want to pull it out every year. I let her do her thing and she really enjoyed this independent craft.

She just used markers and sparkly shamrock foam stickers.

I can't wait to pull this out years to come and see where she was creatively at 2! (Don't forget to date it!!)

Salt Dough Shamrock Necklaces: Part 1

This is one of those crafts you can start without the kiddoes. Mine is night-night right now so I got started so she can finish it tomorrow!

First, you'll need to make salt dough and preheat your oven to 250 degrees...

You'll need 1 cup of salt, 2 cups of flour, and 1 to 1 1/2 cups of warm tap water.

Mix the salt and flour together, then gradually add the water until dough becomes elastic. Use more flour if the dough is too sticky, and more water if too crumbly. Knead the dough to make sure ingredients are mixed well. You could mix your food coloring in at this point, but Monkey will be painting these once cooked.

On floured wax paper, roll the dough as you would sugar cookie dough and cut desired shapes. My little sister's birthday party is coming up, so we'll also be making a heart. Place shaped dough on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet.

I used a straw to poke holes where the string (or ribbon) will be looped through to make a necklace.

Bake an hour on each side, flip, and continue cooking another hour.

Once cooled, the kiddoes are free to paint! I will post Part 2 tomorrow!

How to Catch a Leprechaun...

1. Buy cheap rocks at T. J. Maxx (or if you happen to have enough in your yard...)

2. Spray paint 'em gold

3. Buy even cheaper pots at a thrift store

4. Spray paint those babies black

5. Do something creative with it all..

6. I'll get back to you on that when I figure out exactly what that should be.

Spring Cleaning

I'm still here, I promise! I have been busy, busy, busy Spring Cleaning. (Actually catching up on last Summer, and Winter...)

If you feel moved to do the same, this is a great post to help you get started. The entire site is really motivating and inspiring!

I also enjoyed this little post for further motivation ;) "I must prepare my heart before the Lord for the day, otherwise I will get caught in my own sinfulness and selfishness"... so true!

And, better late than never, here are some highlights of our St. Paddy's Day! I didn't get a pic of the Rainbow Cake, but it turned out great and didn't last long!!

Oh, wowza.

I just found what I'll be making for St. Patrick's Day dessert. Wow, Wow, WOW. Check out the details here. I'm thinking green frosting, though...

wowza.

Another use for that cookie cutter...

It was cold today so Monkey and I enjoyed some tomato soup and grilled cheese for lunch...

And then we made bracelets from (super cute!!) wooden beads I found at the dollar store.

Cost of craft: $3.00

Having Mommy and Me bracelets: priceless.

Mess schmess. We played ALLLL day :)

Salt Dough Shamrock Necklaces REVEALED!

Oh my goodness these turned out soo cute! I will definitely keep this recipe on hand for future occasions, because with cookie cutters, the possibilities are endless!

Monkey insisted I finish one of them, so I decided she'd wear the one mommy made and vice versa for St. Paddy's Day. (You know I'll get pics...) I was excited to get my craft on, too!

We sprinkled on glitter when the paint was wet and finished with a sealer spray so the glitter wouldn't come off.

Wanna make one, too? Check out my post here, to get started!

Coffee Filter Shamrocks: Done 3 Ways

Marker and Water Method:

First, draw a shamrock, or for the artistically impaired, such as myself, trace a shamrock cookie cutter on a coffee filter and cut out.

Next, have your child color it with yellow and blue markers.

Put the shamrock in a small bowl:

Put water in a small bowl or baby food jar, etc.- we used an old sprinkle jar...and have your child dip a paint brush into the water and let the fun begin!

The water drops on the yellow and blue markers will bleed on the filter, creating a green tie-dyed effect! (If your child is a bit older, it would probably be more on the green side, because they tend to color more...)

Water and Food Color Method:

In one container, put a little water and drop a few drops of yellow food coloring. Then, do the same for blue and swoosh around to mix.

You could use a paint brush, but an old medicine dropper was much more fun!

Food Color Method:

The last way to do this would be to drop the food coloring directly on the shamrock filter. This one turned out great and she definitely had the most fun doing it. It was messy fun so I shut the camera off ;)

This one was a freestyle and it's so pretty!

I set all of these to dry on paper towels.

Decorating for St. Paddy's Day Part 1

Four leaf clovers and a sneaky little leprechaun hiding in them... oh wait, take a look at my 25 cent fleur-de-lis I found while thrifting!

My take on a pot of gold.. just some green Mardi Gras beads and a shamrock pin...

this is just one of those cheap-o light-up shamrock necklaces in an apothocary jar...

shamrock ornaments in an apothocary jar...

Framed vintage postcard

Show me the Green.. er.. dough.

I've been a little behind in posting due to taking on the task of making all of our bread from scratch as opposed to buying it. (And that booger of a King's Cake...Ahhh! lol) I will be posting the recipes later this evening, but wanted to let you know we are doing tons of St. Patrick's Day crafting! My goal is to have them all up soon so you have plenty of time to try them out before the actual holiday this time ;)

Ideas are on the way! Thank you so much for reading!