Lucky Leprechaun
Bring the luck of the Irish into your home with this easy-to-make leprechaun that you won't have trouble keeping in one place. Seasonal Sense
A leprechaun is an Irish fairy who is often unfriendly. According to the legend, leprechauns live alone and make shoes for a living. They are small in stature and resemble an old man. It is said that they own a pot of gold, which can be taken from them if you can capture them. Be aware, however, that if you catch a leprechaun, you must always keep your eye on him, or he'll disappear with his treasure intact.
Holiday Hints
You might want to fill your elf box with wrapped candies and set him on a coffee table or give him as a gift. You can also change the holiday theme of this project. For example, you could make a bunny box for Easter, a witch or cat box for Halloween, and Santa Claus or snowman box for Christmas.
Level: Easy
Time involved: One to two hours
Materials:
- Heart-shaped cardboard box
- One small wooden oval piece
- Green and flesh-tone acrylic paints
- Paintbrushes
- Foam plate
- Green and black foam sheets
- Scissors
- Glue gun
- One gold and one green metallic pipe cleaner
- Two green acrylic gemstones
- Two small white foam hearts
- Small red foam heart
- Eight white pom-poms
- Four green chenille pipe cleaners
Paint the upper pointed half of the cardboard lid and the small oval wooden piece with flesh-tone paint. Paint the bottom half and sides of the heart lid with green paint. Paint the outside bottom and sides of the box with green paint and allow to dry.
Cut a hat out of the green foam sheet by making two rectangles that are 7 x 1 1/2 inches and 6 x 3 inches. Glue the 6 x 3 inch rectangle to the top of the 7 x 1 1/2 inch rectangle, and glue this to the pointed end of the heart-shaped cardboard box lid. Cut a black band that is 6 x 1 inch out of black foam sheet. Glue this on top of the hat to form a band.
Bend the gold metallic pipe cleaner into a square and glue this in the middle of the black band to form a buckle. Bend the green metallic pipe cleaner into a three-leaf clover and glue this to the top of the hat as shown.
Glue the two green gemstone eyes onto the white hearts. Glue the hearts and the wooden nose onto the face of the leprechaun. Glue a small red foam heart on the face for a mouth. Glue the eight pom-poms around the face to form a beard and hair.
Bend the two green chenille pipe cleaners into arms and hands and the remaining two green pipe cleaners into legs and boots as shown. Glue the arms and legs onto the sides and bottom of the box.
More on: Crafts for Kids
Excerpted from The Complete Idiot's Guide to Holiday Crafts © 2002 by Marilee LeBon. All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. Used by arrangement with Alpha Books, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
To order this book visit Amazon's web site or call 1-800-253-6476.
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