This winking leprechaun face is a fun craft project to do with the kids in the lead-up to St Patrick’s day.
The end result is quite artistic and will give your kids a lot of freedom to paint, draw, and glue their way to this leprechaun decoration that will look great around the house.
Full instructions are provided below so you can make your own paper plate leprechauns at home.
Prepare Your Paper Plate Craft Materials
Starting with some leftover paper plates from the kitchen, you can improvise a lot from there depending on what materials you have available so you can keep the costs of the project down.
We have used paint to create the base for the leprechaun face, and used stick googly eyes and a marker to create most of the facial features.
Everything else was done with construction or foam paper to create layers of color that round out the leprechaun character.
Leprechaun Paper Plate Craft Video Demonstration
There is a bit more cutting and layering in this project so it is worth watching the video below to see how it all comes together. It is in time-lapse format and will give you a complete overview in just a couple of minutes.
This will help you whizz through the written instruction, and make it much easier to recall when sitting down with your kids.
How to Make a Paper Plate Leprechaun Craft
Instructions
Stage 1 - Prepare the Paper Plate Leprechaun Features
- Step 1- Paint the inner circle of the paper plate with peach-colored paint to create a leprechaun face for decoration later on.
- Step 2 - Set aside to dry for 3 to 5 minutes.
- Step 3 - Tear narrow strips of orange colored paper. This will be for the beard of the leprechaun so the edges are supposed to be rougher than if cut with scissors.
- Step 4 - Next we will cut out a hat shape using the green paper for the leprechaun hat.
- Step 5 - Cut out a black strip of paper the length of the hat for a head banding.
- Step 6 - Then add four small yellow strips of paper that will be used to make a square buckle shape holding the black headband in place.
- Step 7 - Final element is a shamrock shape cut from the green glitter foam paper.
Stage 2 - Assemble the Leprechaun Features on the Paper Plate
- Step 8 - Glue the leprechaun hat in place at the top of the paper plate.
- Step 9 - Glue the elements of the hat in place on top of the green hat.
- Step 10 - Spread a layer of glue around the edge of the paper plate covering the whole edge underneath the hat. Then place your strips of orange paper all around the edges to create that beard effect.
- Step 11 - Paste one big Googly eye in place on the face, and draw on a closed winking eye with a marker on the other side of the face. Glue two more of the orange strips above each of the eyes for eyebrows.
- Step 12 - Using a marker draw on a nose and mouth underneath the eyes. You can also add some blushing cheeks with a pink marker.
- Step 13 - (optional) For the final touch cut out a small pipe shape with black paper and glue in place coming from the mouth.
- Step 14 - Your paper plate leprechaun craft is now complete and ready for decoration.
Why Make a Paper Plate Leprechaun
There is a lot of depth to this paper plate leprechaun project that will challenge your kids in a number of different areas to bring the colors and materials of the project together.
The bright colors you get with the end result will make them feel very proud of their contribution to the St Patrick’s Day decorations around the house.
And the friendly and quirky leprechaun face is sure to get a laugh from time to time also.
For More St Patrick’s Day Themed Crafts
We have plenty more St Patricks Day craft ideas that are suitable for kids. Including the following projects:
Final Word
Hanging up a few of these winking leprechaun faces in amongst all of your green decorations for St Patrick’s day will add some variety to your decorations.
It is also a fun family activity to do leading up to the big day.
