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St. Patrick’s Day is right around the corner. To liven up your home, teach the children how to make a St. Patrick’s Day leprechaun. Not only will it brighten your home, it will also give the wee ones a chance to enjoy hands-on crafts.

Many people associate the leprechaun with Ireland, but don’t realize there are crafts which allow children to make them. In fact, with items found around the home, your child can make more than one leprechaun. And who knows, if you find leprechauns you may also find a pot of gold!

You may be able to find many of these things around your home. For those you cant find, they’re relatively inexpensive or you can find and print some things off of the internet. Here’s what your child will need:

* Toilet paper rolls (enough for each leprechaun your child wants to make)
* Paper in various colors (black, green, white, yellow)
* Crayons
* Scissors
* Glue
* Brown chenille stems (may also be called pipe cleaners)
* Green craft foam
* Printer to print templates or other items off the internet

Begin by searching the internet for leprechaun crafts at websites like DLTK-holidays.com or jas.familyfun.go.com/crafts which will provide templates for various parts of the leprechaun body for this type of craft.

If you dont have access to a colored printer, your child will most likely enjoy coloring the areas where color is needed. No matter which type of craft your child is making, the toilet paper tube will need to be covered. This can be done by using a template or measuring the length of the tube and adding half inch extra on both ends. Be sure the paper or green craft foam is long enough to fully cover the paper tube and then glue it down in place. Bend the extra over the edge of the tube and glue it to ensure the paper wont come off.

Cut out the head, hat, ears, feet, and arms. If the paper these have been printed on is flimsy, your child may want to glue them to an index card to give them extra stability. Then glue the pieces to the covered paper tube. The leprechaun is ready to stand guard over a pot of gold or whatever else your child chooses.

If your child prefers, they can use many of the same ideas using craft foam. Draw a circle around the tube and another one about half an inch larger. This will be the brim for the hat. The center of the circles can be the top of the hat.

Wrap brown chenille stems around a pencil to create spirals which can be glued to the tube. Leave enough room for a face. Either paint the face onto the tube or use one of the templates found. Draw the detail (eyes, mouth and nose) onto the face as well as any other details such as the hands, arms, belt, or a flower in the pocket. Let your child look at pictures of leprechauns to give them an idea of what they should look like.

Once your child learns how to make a St. Patrick’s Day leprechaun, they can use the same basic ideas to make similar crafts for other holidays. Remember, however, since these are made of paper, you’ll want to store them in a box to protect them if your child chooses to keep them. Enjoy the leprechaun and hopefully you’ll find your pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

With St. Patrick’s Day almost upon us, it will soon be time to get out the decorations. Here are some easy St. Patrick’s Day crafts for your kids to enjoy.

1. Buy green construction paper and trace shamrocks from either a coloring book or a template online, and make a string of shamrocks to hang in your home.

2. You can’t celebrate the day without hats! You can easily make St. Patrick’s Day hats by using construction paper. While there are tons of templates available online, you can accomplish this task easily. Take two pieces of green construction paper and tape them together forming about a 14” long piece. Fold it into a circle and tape one side to the other. Take another piece of green construction paper to make the top of the hat by using a paper plate to trace a circle. Cut it out and use clear tape to attach it to the top of the hat.

Next, you’ll need to make the brim of the hat. Again, using green construction paper; cut out a larger circle and apply glue so that the hat will attach itself to the brim. Finally, you need the buckle to place just above the brim of the hat. For this you can use brown construction paper and cut a wide strip and glue or tape it to the hat.

In addition, you may want to assist your kids in making a rainbow Jello mold. You can even make a pot of gold using yellow apples! Or how about the old standby; cupcakes with green icing, with a shamrock cookie on top!

There is no end to the many creative and imaginative ideas you can incorporate when engaging in a fun activity such as decorations for St. Patrick’s Day. Put on some Irish CD’s, and have a great time!

People all over the world enjoy scrapbooking as a hobby. You may already be into scrapbooking, or maybe not yet. Each day someone new begins their first scrapbook. If you’re interested in trying this popular pastime, scrapbooking starts this new year when you plan ahead to make your first scrapbook project.

Scrapbooks are a better place to store pictures and mementos rather than keeping them in boxes where they could get lost or damaged. Scrapbooks are also an easier way for people to enjoy the photos they contain. What better way is there to showcase your memories than with pictures and journal spaces to bring those memories back to mind?

Having a New Year’s Eve party is a great time to start a chronological scrapbook for the coming year. You’ve made your list of guests, sent out invitations, have the menu planned, and even have party games planned. Why not have several disposable cameras sitting around the party so your guests can take candid shots while the party is going on. A digital camera would also be a good idea to have available.

How do you plan for a great New Year’s themed scrapbook if you’ve never completed one before? Obviously, for scrapbooking you will need a scrapbook, pictures, and paper to put them on, as well as scissors, photo corners or glue, embellishments, stickers, pens for journaling, and sheet protectors.

As soon as you can after New Year’s Eve, plan on having the film developed or printed if the camera is digital. Gather your materials and plan on spending some time to get each page to look just as you’d like it.

Choose five or six great pictures from the party rather than trying to work on all of your photos at once. You want to enjoy the process, the memories, and the fun of scrapbooking so you don’t want to overwhelm yourself. Take your time and play with the photos and the layout to find what works best.

Think of a title for each of your pages. “Happy New Year!” is an obvious choice, but you might want something more creative like “Waiting for the ball to drop” or “Auld Lang Syne”. Look at the photographs and decide what title works best with them.

Don’t be afraid to crop your photos to focus on one person or a group of people. If you use scissors to cut the photos, you may want to put photo frames over them to hide the edges. Add boxes to journal the names of the people in the photos or other information you want to remember about the photo.

Scrapbooking continues to grow in popularity and the number of supplies you can find for it is mind-boggling. Take some time to look through the craft stores to find items that will enhance your photos and give your first scrapbook project of the New Year your sense of creativity.

There are events in every person’s life that they want to commemorate, whether it’s the birth of a child, moving into their first home, or their child’s first day of school. You may want to build a time capsule each New Year’s Eve so you can remember the previous year for years to come.

What is a time capsule and why would anyone make one, especially on New Year’s Eve? New Year’s Eve is automatically a time when we think about the future and the past, so putting together a time capsule seems like a great activity at this time of year. Basically a time capsule is a container that can be used to store items that will bring back memories when it is opened at a later date. You may want to include things to help you remember specific events of this year, people that are important to you, and predictions about the future.

If you’re having a New Year’s Eve party, you may want to ask your guests to each bring an item to include in the time capsule. Have them put a sticker or something on the item to identify who put the items in and why this item was important. Decide when you’re going to open the time capsule and write a note not to be opened before that date.

Here’s what you’ll need to make your own time capsule this New Year’s Eve:

* Coffee can or large jar with a lid, a plastic box with a lid
* Any items you may want to include that show what’s going on today
* Paint, stickers, or other items to decorate your time capsule

If you plan to actually bury your time capsule, you may want to paint it rather than cover it with some type of paper. You may want to paint it with a grandfather clock, fireworks, or “Do not open until 2025” (or whatever year you decide).

After you’ve decorated the outside, it’s time to start filling the inside. Include items that are common today. Some coins, postage stamps, a grocery receipt, mall toys from popular television shows or movies, an extra copy of a music CD, a message for people in the future, or a newspaper for the date the time capsule will be buried. Don’t put in food because it could possibly draw bugs or animals, and it won’t be good in the future.

You get the idea. Put anything into the time capsule that will give someone opening it in the future an idea of what life was like when the capsule was buried. Be sure to include a picture of everyone who shared something so people can see what you looked like and how people dressed at the time.

Glue the lid on the container to keep the elements, bugs, and animals out of it. You can bury it in your yard, place it in the basement or attic so it’s out of mind, or find some other place to store it. Making a time capsule for the New Year is a great way to help you remember the year that just passed and have something to look forward to in the future.

Are you tired of buying the same old wrapping paper year after year? Creating wrapping paper is a unique way to show that you really took time to make someone’s present special.

Here are some items you may wish to use: ribbons; small Christmas balls; scissors, glue; glitter; and rubber stamps.

Tissue Paper:
Take whichever color tissue paper you choose and wrap the present. Use the same color ribbon or combine different color ribbons to tie around the present.

Tin Foil:
Another creative idea is to take tin foil and use it as wrapping paper. Wrap the present, and, in the middle, glue a gift card with a poem or rhyme; picture or sentiment; or whatever you prefer to make this present special to the person you are giving it to.

Paper bags:
Do you have some paper bags at home? If so, you can create adorable wrapping paper. Use rubber stamps, stickers, glitter, markers, paints or crayons to personalize and decorate the wrapping paper. This is a fun activity to do with kids.

Personalized wrapping paper:
Print photos of the recipient off your computer and glue them onto the gift. You could cover the entire package with photos of the recipient or just add a few for flair.

Cellophane:
Using colored cellophane as wrapping paper is another popular idea. There are so many ways you can use this cellophane. For instance, wrapping homemade cookies on a plate and tying the top with a ribbon; candies in a mug; or simply wrapping a present using the cellophane and decorating it.

Make a curly cue bow:
Take your scissors and open them up so that you have one blade to work with. Place the blade at the bottom of the bow that is untied (sticking out) and pressing firmly with your thumb on the inside of the ribbon and your index finger on the blade holding the outer side of the ribbon, run the blade up to the top of the ribbon. You have just made a ribbon curly cue.

There are literally thousands of different kinds of wrapping paper one can purchase, but there is only one creative wrapping paper idea – and that is one made with love.