A Tricky Leprechaun Trap ;)

"As everyone knows, leprechauns hoard pots of gold, and if caught, must reveal the treasure's location to their captor." says JoEllen Mitchell from Family Fun Magazine.

Those tricky, little leprechauns sure have played US for fools over the years-turning our kitchen upside down, dying our milk green, leaving green footprints on the floor, sending us on wild and crazy scavenger hunts and even leaving green pee-pee in the toilet-GROSS!

So this year, we're fighting back! We figure they owe us some treasure after all the havoc they've wreaked in our house so we used this idea from Family Fun Magazine to make our own leprechaun trap!


JoEllen also says, "Leprechauns have big egos, so a giant version of their own hat is irresistible to them. Once they step on the false top, you'll have caught a 10-gallon prize"

Want to make one too?? You probably already have everything you need and can make one this afternoon with your kiddos! Here's how...

Supplies:
-Some kind of used cylinder container (the actual one I used was a rolled oats one)
-a cereal box
-a couple sheets of green felt
-a piece of black, yellow and green construction paper
-"gold" (I used Rolo wrappers)
-twigs to make a ladder
-hot glue

What to do:
1. Wrap the container with your green felt using hot glue to secure.
2. Cut a circle-I just did mine about an 1 1/2" bigger than the bottom of the rolled oats container-out of the cereal box for the bottom of the hat, and cover that with green felt as well. I just hot glued the extra felt that came over the edges onto the bottom of my cut-out circle.


3. Hot glue the top of the hat to the base.

4. Make your "belt" around the hat using a strip of black construction paper and a square of yellow placed on-top of the black. Adhere using glue or tape.

5. If you have a machine that cuts paper use it to cut out some clovers on your green construction paper(I cut about 15 in different sizes). If you don't have a machine to do this, I'm sure you could find something to this effect at your local craft store, or find an image online to print out and then cut them out manually. Then use either a small dab of hot glue, glue dots or double sided tape to adhere it randomly all over the felt.

6.To make the lid-or the trap- part of your hat, just cut a small circle of felt slightly bigger than the top of your container and it sits just right on top! A perfect place to put your bait of "gold" for those little sneaky men!

Another piece of advice from JoEllen was,"Leprechauns love to break rules. Warning signs are sure to lure them in." So we made this little lure from a popsicle stick painted green, stuck in some green play-dough with our warning to NOT climb the ladder!

JoEllen goes on to say, "Natural materials make these woodland creatures feel at home." So we used some twigs from outside and glued them together to make a tricky ladder!

Now we just sit and wait to capture our ticket to fortune! :)

I hope you're having a great week!! I have a few more St. Patty's things to share with you so I"ll be back soon!

Thanks for reading!