Free St Patricks Day Crafts Templates: Prancing Leprechauns

For this coming St Patrick’s Day, I thought to make a bouncy Leprechaun Marionette to see him dance his way to the end of the rainbow.

Because I can hold him by the string, maybe I can see where he actually goes and find my pot of gold. Ha ha.

This an easy crafts project, green, adorable and interactive: when you pull the string, the arms and legs move, and the Leprechaun dances.

(Part of the) Leprechaun for St Patricks Day

All kids will love this crafts project…. and adults too. It is so … cute.

This naughty St Patricks Day fairy will BRING GOOD LUCK and a smile on everyone’s faces.

Materials Needed for your Leprechaun

• My free craft templates:
  Leprechaun Marionette in color &
  Leprechaun b/w

• Paper and a printer
• Thin cardboard (can be recycled)
• Glue, Scissors & a Hole Puncher
• 4 Paper connectors or tie-tags
• Needle & pieces of thread; or 2 thin elastic bands plus 3 strings for the top, middle bottom.
• Optional: green (cloverleaf) bead

Prancing Leprechaun

Free Craft Project - ‘How to’ Instructions

1. Click on the two Leprechaun templates to print out a copy of both the colored (for the front of your marionette) and the b/w version (for the back).
2. Glue the colored version template to thin cardboard. Any old cereal box will do.
3. Let it dry.
4. Meanwhile, cut out the parts of the b/w version of the Leprechaun.
5. When dry cut out the colored Leprechaun body parts on cardboard.
6. Glue the white version on the back of the marionette’s body parts.
7. Make holes where the big crosses are placed on the b/w version.
8. Connect the arms and legs to the body using either green tie-tags or if you can find them, some beautiful brass paper connectors.
9. Thread a needle, put a knot in the thread, and take your string through the small holes that are marked on the top of in the arms. Place another knot at the other end. You could use a thin elastic band instead of a a thread and needle, which might be safer for young children.
10. Do the same for the legs.
11. Tie another string to the top of the head - make a loop to hang the marionette.
12. With the arms and legs hanging down, tie a thread to the middle of each string. This is the string to pull to make the arms and legs move.
13. Optional: you may put a nice green (cloverleaf) bead at the end of the bottom string and place a little knot below the bead so it stays.

    Voila. Your lucky charm is made. Have fun making your Leprechaun dance.

    Easy Crafts for Kids - School Tips
    If you’d get a whole classroom to do this project, I’d make some variations on this theme. It would be fun to see a whole group of dancing and dangling leprechauns together.

    You can make this easy crafts project for kids in two ways: 1. The way as described above.
    or 2. Kids can use the b/w marionette template as a St Patricks Day coloring page, or, craft on green & other colored papers. It all depends on the age group, their craft skills and abilities and the time you have available for the project.

    

    Leprechaun legends

    Leprechauns, those little fairies, spend all their time busily making shoes, and stashing away all the money their craft brings them in a hidden pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

    Everyone’s heard of the legendary pot of gold.

    The only way to track one is to follow the sound of a leprechaun hammering the shoes. They say if you catch one, he’ll promise to take you to his pot of gold …. if you can just keep him in your sights. They tend to escape….

    Filed under Easy Crafts, Free Tutorials, Holiday & Seasonal Crafts, Kids Crafts, Making Art, Paper Craft · Tagged with coloring page leprechaun, free clipart of leprechauns, free printable crafts, Free St Patricks Day Crafts, leprechaun clip art, st patricks day clip art, st patricks day coloring pages