Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with this easy paper leprechaun craft! Your kids will love making this cute little leprechaun that may make their wishes come true!
You can’t celebrate St. Patrick’s Day without doing a leprechaun craft with your kids! I have to admit, I don’t know too much about St. Patrick’s Day, but when I think of the holiday, my mind goes to leprechauns, pots of gold, and shamrocks.
According to Irish folklore, leprechauns were quite the trickers who hid their large pots of gold at the end of a rainbow. The story of the mythical creature is a fun one to tell the kids, especially since kids love practical jokers!
Below is a simple leprechaun craft you can make with your kids. With the free template, all you have to do is cut out the pieces and give them to your kids to assemble. This paper leprechaun comes with boots, a belt, and the iconic leprechaun hat!
The downloadable leprechaun template comes with two hat designs. One is more boxy and the other one more rounded. Choose your preferred style for your leprechaun!
How to Make a Simple Paper Leprechaun Craft
List of Supplies:
- Free leprechaun template
- Colored craft papers
- Craft glue
- Googly eyes
- Black marker or Sharpie
- Pencil
- Scissors
Instructions:
Prepare the Leprechaun Template Patterns
1. Download and print out the leprechaun template. Cut out all the pieces.
2. Trace the template patterns on colored craft or construction paper:
- Green craft paper: Hat, body, sleeves, and pants
- Light pink craft paper: Face and hands
- Orange craft paper: Eyebrows and beard
- Brown craft paper: Shoes (you can also use black if you wish)
- Black craft paper: Belt and hat decor
- Yellow or gold craft paper: Buckles for the belt and the hat decor
Cut out all the traced pieces.
Assemble the Leprechaun Face
3. Glue the head of the leprechaun on the beard. Glue the hands to the sleeves and the boots to the pants.
4. Glue the nose near the middle of the leprechaun’s face. To make the leprechaun’s face appear more 3D, you can glue a small piece of foam cutout underneath the nose.
5. Glue the googly eyes on the leprechaun’s face. Glue the orange eyebrows above the eyes. Use a black marker or Sharpie to draw a smile underneath the nose.
Put Together the Leprechaun Hat
6. Glue the small black square in the middle of the yellow or golden belt buckle. Glue the buckle in the middle of the small black strip. Glue the belt with the buckle onto the belt.
Assembling the Leprechaun Body
7. Similar to the belt for the hat, glue the small black square in the middle of the yellow or gold buckle. Then glue the buckle to the long black strip to form the belt. Glue the belt on the body.
Glue the sleeves and hands on both sides of the body and the pants and boots to the bottom of the body.
Putting the Leprechaun Together
8. Glue the head to the top of the body.
9. Glue the hat on top of the leprechaun’s head. You finished your leprechaun!
My favorite thing about this leprechaun paper craft is the face with the googly eyes and the nose that pops out at you. It makes the leprechaun more realistic and cute.
If you don’t have googly eyes, you can simply draw on the eyes with a black marker. Also, you can change up the expression on the leprechaun’s face. Since leprechauns are known to be mischievous, you can make your leprechaun stick his tongue out as if he is giving you a raspberry.
The smaller pieces make this craft a little challenging for preschoolers, but my 4 years old daughter had no problem doing it. For older kids who are in kindergarten or elementary school, they should be able to cut out the template pieces by themselves.
Since there are many pieces in the paper leprechaun template, I recommend that you cut them out ahead of time if you are doing this craft in a classroom. This way, the students can focus on assembling the various pieces to create their leprechaun during class.
Happy St. Patricks’ Day!
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