St Patty's Leprechaun

To make your leprechaun exactly like ours you will need:
Green paint
Green glitter
Thick white paper
Heart sponge
Plate (or something to put paint on to dip the sponge in)
Green craft foam
Flesh colored craft foam (or white foam and paint)
Pom poms (for eyes, nose, beard, hands and boots)
Four green sequins
Two small yellow foam circles
Two green pipe cleaners (cut in half)
Scissors
Hole punch
Craft glue
Pencil (to wrap pipe cleaners around)


Day 1: Painting

I set up a piece of heavy painting paper.  I then put some green paint on a plastic plate and mixed in some green glitter.  The plan was to see if Natalie could use the heart sponge to make clovers, but at two and a half, she wasn't ready for that.  So, she just had fun pressing it all over the paper.  In fact, she had so much fun that we set the first sheet aside and she covered a whole second sheet adding other colors and a star sponge.

I let the paint dry, and that night I traced the heart sponge on a big patch of green paint to make the clover.  I tried to make a four leaf clover, but couldn't get it to look right in the green paint sploch I had, so I went with three leaves.  I then cut out the clover.

Day 1.5 or Night Before Assembly:
The night before I prepped all the pieces and stuck them in a ziplock bag for safe keeping until a good craft time presented itself.

I didn't have any flesh colored craft foam, so I mixed yellow, red, and white to make a pink color.  I let it dry and cut out a circle for the head.  (You could use paper or felt instead). 

I then cut out a hat out of green craft foam.  I measured it against the circle to make sure I didn't make it too big or small.  (You could use paper or felt instead). 

I cut two green pipe cleaners in half.  I then wrapped them around a pencil to make them spring like.  (You could use foam, ribbon, or string instead, but it won't have the same look). 

Then I just had to gather the remaining pieces.  I got three medium orange pom poms for the beard.  I got this idea from a craft on Pinterest, which is what inspired this whole craft in the first place.  I pulled two tiny black pom poms for eyes.  We usually use googly eyes, and I thought this would be a nice change.  You could use a different color, of course.  I also pulled a tiny pink pom pom for the nose.  Originally I was going to cut out hands and boots our of craft foam (you could again use paper or felt), but they didn't look so great, so I swapped them for slightly bigger pom poms. 

Looking through my scrap box I found the two little yellow foam circles and decided to make buckles on the shoes.  (You could swap tiny pom poms or gems).  I also found some green sequins and thought they'd make a cute shamrock for the hat.  (Again, pom poms or gems could work here). 

Day 2: Assembly
The order you put it together probably doesn't matter, but here is how Natalie and I decided to do it.

She understands faces the best, so she was anxious to put on the eyes, nose, and beard.  Since she is so young, I squeeze the glue on to the foam, and she places the pom poms.  Next, we put on the hat.  I glued on the sequins because I didn't want her to get too frustrated picking them up.

I then showed Natalie how the hole puncher worked and punched holes for the arms and legs.  I put one arm threw the hole to show her how, and then she put the other three through the holes.  I bent the pipe cleaner over a little so that it stayed in place.

I put glue on the hand and feet pom poms and held the pipe cleaners in place for Natalie to put them on.  Lastly, I dabbed glue on the boots and she places on the buckles.