Welcoming the Leprechauns!

St. Patrick's Day is coming... will the Leprechaun's stop by?

We'll do our best to welcome them,  shhhh... don't spy!

With shamrocks, rainbows, froggies, too,

May our green and friendly spirit shine through! 

The kids drew their special pictures which were so loved by the Leprechauns that they disappeared on St. Patrick's Day morning.  Phew to Mom's foresight to scan them first, or all evidence would have disappeared!

Chica and Jo showed us how to turn Halloween pots into Leprechaun friendly pots of clover (thank you!).  We dug clover from our yard, added potting soil to our pots, and in just a few "dirty" minutes, our railing was looking very festive!

We could tell the Leprechaun's liked these, too, because they left a shiny coin in each and every one!

A fresh coat of chalkboard paint had our blackboard pot looking spiffy.  (This idea has been around awhile... you just need a spray can of chalkboard paint, a big terra cotta pot, and some painter's tape). An artist-helper added the seasonal detail....

Which turned into making a chalk dust rainbow... and foot prints... tracks... then paint... and well, you know where this is going, don't you?

On the dog, of course. Who made out great with a big treat after he was cleaned up... and then there was the laundry, the floor, the chair... wasn't this an outside project? Creativity is messy!

One more thing I tried inside was a St. Patrick's Day banner.  I saw this idea on Pinterest.  It captured the St. Patrick's Day spirit so perfectly I couldn't stop looking at it... spring green against the black and white winter background.  Only problem was, the provided link didn't lead me to the original post. Could I make this on my own? Sure... the trickiest part looked like the black and white background. Where to get the paper?   Shopping wasn't an option.

I found some flowered paper in my stash, and played around with the black and white copy options on my printer. Whala!  I had what I needed!  The heart shapes were easy enough to trace and fold.  I hot-glued them to the pennants and folded the pennants over twine, keeping with a rustic look. 

 I made a couple of extras, singles, for hanging on window latches.

Then I was messing around on Pinterest again and got curious... This time I was able to trace the original banner all the way back to Lil' Luna.  Wow, it sure would have made things easier to go there first!  Kristyn even provides an Irish map banner to use as the background, and distresses her hearts with black stamp ink around the edges. Simply elegant! 

In the end, the test was to see if the Leprechauns liked it... and I'm happy to report, they came with their map and treasure once again. :)