St. Patrick's Day stuff

I said when posting some pics for Valentines Day, I would get it together to post some pics for St. Patrick's Day. So, here they are. These are some projects I made for kids art workshops.

Tips and Hints: If you are working with a larger group of kids, you can have somethings pre-cut and printed off already to help save time. It also makes the cards look better. (You try writing Happy St. Patrick's Day with small hands on a small card! Don't expect a small child to.)

• For getting thin strips of paper, simply shred different coloured paper and card in a normal paper shredder. Kids love shredded paper.
• For the mobiles, I did the shamrocks on the computer, just copy and paste 100 shamrock shapes onto one page, and print it off on green card. This might seem a bit time-consuming, but once you have it done, save it and pull it out every year for Paddy's Day, football matches, etc..
  
• The greetings were all printed off as well. Same thing, copy and paste it as many times as possible onto one page. Then print.
• The Ireland motif was also printed off and then cut.
  
• Most of the cards were made using a stick glue, but if you wanted a bit of relief, for the motif to stand slightly away from the card, you can use thick (slightly papped) double-sided tape. Use a stronger glue for St. Patrick's model, eg Bostick,
  
• Sometimes its easier to stick things onto a card, and then trim down the edges. Rather then trying to cut it to size
  

Painted Stones - couldn't be easier

* Get a large stone, paint it green
* Paint on a mouth and nose
* Glue tufts of wool/fleece on the top for hair
* Stick on googly eyes


How to cut out a Shamrock
This is a nice easy way to cut out a good shamrock. If you use card, then you can use it as a template. All you need is to fold a page, draw on half a shamrock with a pen, cut out, then fold out.

Shamrock Card

*Using the method above, cut out 3 shamrocks. You can use paper or card. Try make them slightly bigger than the next. So cut out the green 1st, then cut the white a bit bigger, then the orange a bit bigger than white.
*Cut a card shape from green paper. Fold in two.
*Get 4 strips of yellow paper/card and glue them on all sides

*Stick the shamrock shapes down in order, largest to smallest.
*Print off a page with the words Happy St. Patrick's Day
*Cut this out and glue down onto the card.



Another Shamrock Card

Not that different from the card above:
*Cut out 2 shamrocks. I used a gold card and green card. Again, cut the gold slightly bigger than the green
*Cut a card shape from white paper. Fold in two.
*Get 3 strips of paper orange, white and green, cut them down to size and lay them in sequence.
*Stick these across the card
*Then, stick the shamrock shapes down gold first, then green
*Print off a page with the words Happy St. Patrick's Day
*Cut this out and glue down onto the card.


Ireland Card

This is a bit more difficult for younger kids to cut out, so you could have some pre-cut.
*Cut out 2 Ireland shapes. I used a gold card and green card. Again, cut the gold slightly bigger than the green
*Cut a card shape from white paper. Fold in two.
*Get 1 strips green and glue this to the card
*Then, stick the Ireland shapes down, gold first, then green
*Print off a page with the words Happy St. Patrick's Day
*Cut this out and glue down onto the card.


Crock of Gold Card

*Fold a sheet of card in half and paint sky and fields
*Paint a rainbow onto a piece of card, then cut it out.
*Cut out a crock from black paper
*Cut out a triangular shape from gold card. You can draw circles on this so it looks like coins.
*Stick the gold triangle to the back of the crock of gold.
*When the card is dry, stick on the rainbow
*Finally, stick on the crock of gold.

ShamrockMobile

*Cut a paper plate in half











*Stick down several strips of rainbow colours, and while the glue is wet, sprinkle on gold glitter. Leave to dry

*Get some large beans, such as broad beans and spray gold. Leave to dry.
*Cut out one big shamrock and several small shamrocks.
*Glue the large shamrock to the rainbow
*Cut several long lengths of string and tie these around the each bead
*Using a needle, thread the string through a few small shamrocks, and then tie onto the bottom of the rainbow
*Repeat this until you have as many beans as you want!

The Main Man himself chasing snakes out of Ireland!

To make St. Patrick:
*To get the nice pattern on St Patrick's body and hat, you simply get some old lace curtain. Lay this down onto a sheet of green card, and spray with gold paint. Lift off the lace and you will be left with the pattern!
*For the body, cut a large cone shape from green card
*For the hat, cut out two triangular shapes from green card and glue the edges
*Glue some gold thread around the end of the hat and body
For the face cut out and oval shape, and paint on eyes and a beard
*Glue this in place to the hat
*Glue the hat and face on top of the body
*Get a green pipe cleaner, bend into a hook shape and glue it into place

To make the cross:
*Cut out 2 shapes of a cross from black card.
*Using thick double sided tape, stick them together.To make the snakes:
*Get some coloured pipe cleaners and bent them into snake shapes.

To make the box
*Get a small box, cover the top and all the sides with green tissue. I used leftover green napkins, and a glued it down roughly. Don't cover the bottom. Leave to dry

To finish
*Stick it all in place!











Please remember these are all my designs so hold some copyright thingymabobs, but I don't mind you using them with your own kids or students. If you' re not sure, just ask me! And if you do use them, I'd love to see some pics!