Creating Lasting St Patrick’s Day Memories

St Patrick’s Day is a fun time that you can enjoy with your family.  While many people just think of it as a time to party and go out, there are lots of people who enjoy making the day something special for their children and family.

This year I decided to get crafty with my hubby with some Dollar Tree finds.  We had a ton of fun making cards for our children from their leprechauns.  I thought that I would share the steps that we took to create these fun cards for our four children.  They woke up to their special surprises from their leprechauns stood up in front of the TV.

For Althea My “Bling-Bling” Princess

So Althea loves the bling.  I decided that her leprechaun would know this about her.  I started with a small black posterboard and folded it in half.  Then I took a piece of glitter card stock and cut it to fit on the front of the posterboard.  I used hot glue to secure it in place.  After doing this I used hot glue one small line at a time to secure beads to spell out her name.  It was a very blingy front of the card.

Then I decided to write a poem that I thought she would like.  She had been talking about trying to catch a leprechaun and making a leprechaun trap at school.  So I thought that I would make her poem playful land fun.  Then I attached a “lucky” glitter shamrock on the inside front cover with hot glue and used sparkly green duct tape to put the poem in place.  The final touch was coming up with a leprechaun name and using some letter stickers to spell out his name.

Althea was so thrilled with her card.  She said “Mommy my leprechaun knew that I loved bling!” and took it to school to show her teacher and all of her friends.

For Little Miss Thing, Adeline

So Adeline is my sassy little three year old.  I wanted to do something fun and blingy but wanted her design to be completely unique from Althea’s.  First I drew a leprechaun face on note card and colored it.  Then I made a hat for him from the sparkly paper.  I also adhered a fuzzy mustache to his face.  I then used the letter stickers to spell her name.  For the shamrocks I layered a shamrock and the one with the beginning part of her poem on top of one another.  I traced the parts that were not underneath the other shamrock and used hot glue to adhere beads for a little bling.

I created a very simple poem for Adeline’s since she is only three.  On the inside I stuck one of the “lucky” shamrocks and then on the other side I stuck the shamrock with the rest of the poem.  Finally I created a funny leprechaun name out of the letters.

Adeline loved her card so much that she carried it with her all day long.  This is saying a lot since we went to a parade, to see grandma, and out to eat.  Yes the card went everywhere with us and she told everyone that her leprechaun left it for her.

For The Always Funny Huxley

I have to introduce this one by first stating that my husband was an art student.  He decided to help me this time and he created the card for Huxley.  He made some fun circular designs on the green glittered card stock, cut out some letters that he colored, and used letter stickers to create the cover of his card.

For the inside of his card he drew the leprechaun and gave him a little makeover complete with sideburns, a mustache, and a beard.  He had me write the poem.  (As the writer in the family these types of things are usually left up to me).  He wrote the leprechauns’ name on a shamrock, and left Huxley a “lucky” shamrock too.

Huxley’s card made the rounds with us today too and he was pretty happy that he had gotten it.  He even told me that he had to take it to school to show his teachers tomorrow.  (Huxley only goes to school on Mon-Wed-Fri for prek.)

For My Grown Up Mr, Andrew

My oldest is almost 12 so everything that I do for him is often considered lame.  I thought that I would have a lot of fun with this card to make it silly for him.  I put a strip of the glittered card stock across the bottom of the front of the card.  I then proceeded to make a face out of shamrocks (for the eyes), his initials in glittered card stock (for the pupils), duct tape (for the hat), a furry mustache, a second furry mustache shaped and cut in 1/2 (for the eyebrows), and beads glued on for the nose and mouth.

On the inside cover he got some “lucky” shamrocks.  I also wrote a longer poem for him that told more of a story.  I tried to make this fun for his age level too.  I glued the notecards that I wrote the poem on into the card and came up with a silly name for his leprechaun.

He giggled when he read it and had more fun than he thought.