Supplies to make Leprechaun Cupcake Toppers

Chenille stems (the kind with bumps)

small pictures for the faces (I enlarged my daughter’s classroom picture on a copier)

wire

shamrock stickers

hot glue gun

How to make Chenille Leprechaun Dolls

Download Leprechaun Hat Printable.

Print the leprechaun hat pdf in color on white card-stock.

For each doll you  will need two pieces of chenille stem (one with one bump and one with two bumps).

Fold longer piece in half.

Slip short piece in the middle.

Twist the folded chenille stem above and below the short piece to hold the short piece in place.

Bend up ends to create tiny hands and feet.

Glue the hat to the face and the shamrock to a short piece of wire. Glue these pieces to the body. Glue a toothpick to one leg.

Stick the friendly leprechauns into cupcakes!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! —- and Happy Birthday to by brother!

Green Candied Popcorn

4 quarts popped corn
1 1/2 Cups sugar
1/2 Cup light corn syrup
2 Tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar (optional, does make mixture slightly more creamy)
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
green food coloring (I used about 1/8 teaspoon Wilton paste color in Kelly Green)

In heavy saucepan on medium heat melt butter then add sugar, corn syrup, cream of tartar and salt. Increase temperature to medium high and bring mixture to a boil, stirring constantly to dissolve sugar. Once mixture boils, add in food coloring and stop stirring. Boil for 5 minutes (Do not stir). Mixture should be about 250-260 degrees. Remove from heat and carefully stir in vanilla and baking soda. Working quickly and while mixture is foamy, pour mixture over popped corn and gently stir to coat popcorn. Place popcorn into a large roaster or rimmed baking sheet (lined with parchment paper or sprayed with cooking spray) and bake at 200° F for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes.

Freezer Paper Stencil Tutorial

Draw design on paper side of the freezer paper, shiny side of freezer paper facing down. I have included the template I used. I  cut the stencil with my Silhouette Cutter, but an exacto knife works also.

Pinch Proof Stencil Download

Iron freezer paper shiny side down onto t-shirt. This doesn’t take much —about 30 seconds on medium heat. Check to make sure freezer paper  is completely adhered to the shirt. Don’t forget to also iron the center parts into the letters. Notice I forgot the center of the first letter p.

Following directions on the bottle mix  fabric painting medium 2:1 into acrylic paint. You will also want some amazing DecoArt Glamour Dust for embellishing the t-shirt.

Apply paint to stencil and sprinkle wet paint with Glamour Dust. I  was glamming up the shamrocks, but wish I had sprinkled it on the whole stencil. This stuff is so cool and gives such a professional finish!

Flip over and remove extra Glamour Dust. Remove stencil.

Allow paint to dry 48 hours (only 24  is necessary if only using paint and not Glamour Dust), then heat set the paint by ironing over design for 30 seconds on medium heat.

No pinching allowed!

First up on this list of amazing printables for St. Patrick’s Day, these lovely cards from 74 Lime Lane. She shares my wish for you dear sweet blog reader……..

For each petal on the shamrock this brings a wish your way. Good health, good luck, and happiness for today and every day.

1. Printable St. Patrick’s Day Note Cards

2. St Patrick’s Printable Gift Tags

3. St Patty’s Printable Treat Bag Toppers

4. St Patrick’s Day Printable Treat Bag Toppers

5. You are the pot of gold printable treat bag toppers

6. Free printable St Patrick’s Cupcake Toppers, Drink Straw Penants and Water Bottle Labels

7. Lucky Penny Printable Cards

8. Loads of Free St Patrick’s Day Printables: Subway Art, Shamrocks and Sayings

9. Mini St Patrick’s Day Printable Cards

10. Printable Party Circles for St Patrick’s Day

You might be interested in:

Cute Printables for St Patrick’s Day

Printable St Patty’s Treat Bag Topper

Join me over at BlogFrog for a live chat Wednesday 8 pm EST, on seasonal projects and decorating! Come share your ideas!

How to make a Blarney Stone with a hidden treasure

Tradition says if you kiss the Blarney Stone you will be given the gift of gab. You will be able to talk eloquently and convincingly. I don’t think these girls need any help with the gift of gab, but we still thought we would make these Blarney Stones. A treasure can be found in the middle of each stone.

Homemade Rocks Recipe

Mix up:

• 1 cup used coffee grounds (or used dry espresso grounds–what we had) If they are too wet I am sure it would change the color of the mixture
• 1/2 cup salt
• 1/4 cup sand
• 1 cup flour
• 3/4 cup water
• (I think it would be very easy to tint this mixture with tempera paint—they might be dull colors when dry)

Mix together dry ingredients and then slowly add enough of the water to make a stiff dough—you might not need all off the water, so add slowly.

Knead the mixture on a floured surface until fairly smooth.

Break the dough into desired sizes. We divided it into 4 equal pieces. Hide your trinkets (super balls, small plastic toys, etc.) or money in the center of each ball of dough.

Bake at 150F degrees for 2 hours (I turned them over half way through) and then air dry 2-3 days (or longer). If you make smaller rocks I would dry one hour in the oven and then air dry 2 days or more. The size of rock and the amount of humidity in your home will affect the drying time. They will look and feel like rocks when dry.

I had hoped to paint them with green and white paint for fun and wait to open them on St Patrick’s Day, but nobody was willing to wait to crack them open with a hammer— let alone wait for paint to dry.

I think we might make some egg shaped ones for Easter.

Visit the Daily Digi to download this cute collection of digital papers.

And these darling printables for treat bag toppers.

Simply print out the treat bag topper on card stock and trim around the outside edge. With a craft knife cut around the top of the shamrock. Fold paper in half, allowing the shamrock to stay straight. A bone folder will help to make the fold nice and crisp.

If you are really daring and like to throw caution to the wind, you can use the shamrock digi paper to print shamrocks on a white lunch sack.  It was a bit tricky (scary) but I got it to work. I would only try this on an inexpensive printer. I folded the the bottom of the bag in the opposite direction so I could print on the flat side without the seam. I sent the bottom of the bag through first. The bag could also be decorated with stamps or left plain.

Once your plain or printed bag is filled with goodies, attach the topper to the top of the bag with some fancy brads or staples.

So skip on over to the Daily Digi to gather up all of your fabulous freebies!

Oh Gravy shares her cute printabale Lucky Pillow Box.

TomKat has some adorable printable St Patrick’s Cupcake Picks!

Busy Bees also has some great  printable cupcakes toppers. She shows you how they also can become cute pins.

Looking for other way’s to celebrate St Patrick’s Day? You might like:

Crochet Shamrock Garland

St. Patrick’s Day T- Shirt

Blarney Treasure Stones

and more ideas here.

I hope you will come back Friday for another printable treat!

If you want to play along don’t forget to grab a button to place at the top or bottom of your post to show you are participating in Made By You Mondays!
Simply copy the code below in the box and paste where you can edit the html in your blog post.

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If you are looking for entertaining and party ideas you won’t want to miss one of our sponsors, Second City Soiree.

If you are thinking about hosting a St. Patrick’s Day party she has some fun ideas for  celebrating St. Patty’s with Guinness Beer.

Green Candied Popcorn

4 quarts popped corn
1 1/2 Cups sugar
1/2 Cup light corn syrup
2 Tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar (optional, does make mixture slightly more creamy)
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
green food coloring (I used about 1/8 teaspoon Wilton paste color in Kelly Green)

In heavy saucepan on medium heat melt butter then add sugar, corn syrup, cream of tartar and salt. Increase temperature to medium high and bring mixture to a boil, stirring constantly to dissolve sugar. Once mixture boils, add in food coloring and stop stirring. Boil for 5 minutes (Do not stir). Mixture should be about 250-260 degrees. Remove from heat and carefully stir in vanilla and baking soda. Working quickly and while mixture is foamy, pour mixture over popped corn and gently stir to coat popcorn. Place popcorn into a large roaster or rimmed baking sheet (lined with parchment paper or sprayed with cooking spray) and bake at 200° F for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes.

Happy St Patrick’s Day!

If your little girl needs a bit o’ green tomorrow it is not too late to make this little hair clip. It is based on this crochet pattern by Suzie—-so I am hoping it works for you if you give it a go. It only takes a few minutes.

I used a size 4 crochet needle and embroidery floss (all 6 threads).

Chain 6, dc in 2nd chain from hook and then slip-stitch in remaining 4 chains (this makes the stem), chain 3 and join with a slip-stitch in the 3rd chain from hook to form a ring. For petal *chain 3 turn (only turn the first time), trc , dc , trc , chain 3 and slip-stitch in ring*. Repeat between * two more times so you have 3 petals. Fasten off and weave in the ends. Sew your lucky shamrock to a bobby pin or hair clip.

Now this little girl can tell her big brothers NO PINCHING!