Irish Neck Tie

This St. Patrick's Day tie is quick to make and a lot of fun to wear! In fact, you probably won't get it off your kids even after St. Patty's because they are so fun and silly.

What You'll Need:
- Light green fun foam (most of a sheet)
- Dark green fun foam
- White fun foam
- Permanent black marker
- Hot glue or foam glue
- Scissors
- Pencil
- 18 inches green yarn

What to Do:
1. Download the template and copy onto light green fun foam. Cut out the pieces.

2. Cut out several shamrocks from the dark green and white fun foam. They can be any size or shape you want, as long as they will fit on the tie. The actual tie is the larger piece in the template below.

3. Assemble the tie before decorating...

The rectangle in the template will be the knot of the tie.

Sandwich the narrow end of the tie between the two short ends of the rectangle. To do this, you will have to fold the rectangle in half and fit the narrow end of the tie into the fold. Do not push the tie all the way into the fold, only push it in about an inch or so. This will create a loop of foam that the tie hangs out of. Glue it in place.



4. Thread the yarn through the loop in the foam and tie the two ends together. This is how the child will be able to wear the tie -- like a necklace.

5. Glue the shamrocks from step 2 onto your tie. Use a permanent black marker to write the words "Kiss Me!" on the tie and to add any other details you want.

That's it. Put your tie on and have a ball being silly!

NOTE: The reason that I've included this as a little kid craft is that you can easily do this craft with paper instead of fun foam. It won't be as durable, but younger children can do most of it without any help.

Courtesy of Free Kid Crafts.

Shamrock Hats

Are you having a St. Patty's Day party? Want to make your kiddos feel useful? Have them make this fun and easy St. Patrick's Day paper craft that will keep them busy and make them happy that they are "helping" you!

What you'll need:
- Green construction paper
- 2 Green chenille stems (pipe cleaners)
- Tape
- Glue
- Stapler
- Scissors
- Ruler
- Pencil
- Heart shape cookie cutters or similar

Easy to do...
1. Have the kids trace around the heart shapes 4 times while lining up the sides of the hearts together to form a ring of hearts. And then cut out the connected hearts (now your shamrock)as a single piece.

2. Repeat number 1 3 more times so you end up with a total of 4 shamrocks.

3. Make some small snipped cuts between the hearts - but not all the way through - to show the petals of the shamrocks.

4. Cut out 2 strips of green construction paper that are about 1 1/2 inches wide.

5. Tape one end together and try on your child's head. Cut and tape it to fit.

6. Staple one pipe cleaner to the outside of the green paper ring.

7. Staple the other pipe cleaner to the opposite side of the green paper ring. (Note: Use wire cutters and cut the stem in half to make shorter wiggling shamrocks if desired.)
8. Glue 2 shamrocks to the opposite end of each of the pipe cleaners. Let them dry and place on your kids' heads...

Irish Carnations

From our friends at Kid Crafts magazine.

Keeping with the St. Patrick's Day theme, here's another fun and creative way to make something with your kids for the green holiday. This is a really good experiment for children to learn about how plants absorb nutrients and food. Of course, you can make the carnations just about any color you want, but making them "Irish" carnations gives you a good excuse to play with flowers in the off season.

What you'll need:

• White carnations (avoid the fancy ones)
• Green food color
• Water
• Teaspoon sugar
• Scissors
• Container (to hold flowers)

What to do:

1. Create the dye solution. Combine one ounce of food coloring with one pint of warm water and one teaspoon of sugar. Mix well and make sure the sugar is dissolved.
2. Cut the tip of each carnation stem with the scissors. Having a fresh cut will ensure that the carnation can absorb the water.
3. Put the fresh cut stems into the dye solution so that is covers about three inches of the stem.
4. Set the carnations up out of the way so they won't be knocked down and wait for them to change color. It may take up to 24 hours for the colors to become vivid.

What Happened?
The age of your child or group of children will determine how much you can discuss this experiment with them. Some kids will just be happy and excited to see the colors change. Others will want to know exactly how it happened.

I'm sure you already know how it works, but just in case, here's the scoop. Most plants absorb or "drink" water and nutrients from the ground through their roots. The water travels up the stem of the plant into the leaves and flowers. The plant uses the water and nutrients to make food.

Obviously, when a flower is cut it no longer has it's roots. It still absorbs water through it's stem, however. When you put the food coloring into the water, the flower "drinks" up the dye along with the water, which changes the color of the carnation's flowers. By the way, RIT dye works really well to give a more brilliant color than food coloring.

Do you like this craft? Try out these Little Kid Crafts Books. I've found wonderful ideas and helpful solutions for those rainy days and long weekends. I highly recommend it! Click the books below to find out more.

Kids Crafts

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Green on Green

Kids Crafts

Since St. Patrick's Day is just around the corner, I thought I'd post a few appropriate crafts over the next few days to celebrate the green holiday. This craft is great fun for the little kids and a creative pleasure for the bigger kids.

What you need:

• Green Construction Paper
• Green crayons or you can use oil pastels
• White tempera paint
• Paintbrushes
• Water and a few water containers
• Cover a work area with plastic or newspaper
  
• Paint shirts or smocks for the little ones is a good idea
  

What to do:

1. Draw a picture or any kind of design on green construction paper using green crayon -- a bit tricky because its sometimes hard to see what it is you are drawing. If you can't draw an image with detail, just do some simple and fun designs.
2. Press hard with the crayon to make it nice and thick.
3. After your picture is drawn, brush some white tempera paint lightlty over the paper.
4. Voila! It's magic... now you'll see cool lines appearing out of nowhere!
   
5. Have the child sign the picture and then display it.
   

This fun craft comes from my friends at Free Kid Crafts

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Kids Crafts
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