Celebrate St. Patrick's Day by trying to capture some of that luck o' the Irish: Build a Leprechaun House to lure in a leprechaun! Your kids will love working on this craft and it's a perfect decoration for any St. Patrick's Day party!

Materials

• 1 shoe box (or other box of a similar size)
• green construction paper or wrapping paper
• regular tape (double sided is best, if you have it) or scrapbook tape
• craft glue
• assorted colored cardstock, scrapbook paper, or construction paper (gold and greens are good)

• 1 paper towel tube
• St. Patrick's Day cupcake wrapper (or gold/green wrapper)
• scissors
• colored pens
• shamrock cookie cutters

Instructions

1.
Cover your box with the green construction paper. Wrap the lid separately from the box, so it can be removed later when your child wants to peek inside.

2.
Optional: Have an adult carefully cut a hole in the box lid (to provide the leprechaun an entrance and exit). You could also prop the lid open, or leave the lid off completely if you'd like.

3.
Trace around the shamrock cookie cutters onto the cardstock.

4.
Cut out the shamrocks to decorate your leprechaun house. You can place some on the outside of the box to look like shamrock shaped windows and bushes. Textured or patterned scrapbook paper works really well for this and add color and interest.

5.
Make a little shamrock chair by covering a 1-inch tall piece of paper towel tube with scrapbook paper, or construction paper. Cut a shamrock for the back of the chair, and a 2-inch circle for the top of the chair. Use craft glue to glue the chair together.
6.
Have your child draw a small picture of a rainbow, and a pot of gold to frame and put on the wall of your little house.

7.
Make or buy gold coins to sprinkle on the ground to lure in the leprechaun. If you want to make the coins yourself, use gold card stock and trace around a real penny or nickel onto the card stock. Then, cut out your coins.
8.
Turn the cupcake wrapper upside down to make a tiny table.

9.
Set your leprechaun house in a quiet dark corner and wait to see if you attract any guests. Who knows? Maybe you'll wake up one morning to find a leprechaun has taken up residence!

Tips

• If no leprechauns take you up on the offer, your children can let their own toys move in and have a blast playing with the house.
• You can add other things to your leprechaun house: dollhouse furniture, tiny rugs, whatever you want to make or have on hand.