Last Minute St. Patrick's Day Craft

I saw this craft on a blog earlier this week and now I can't find it to give that crafty lady her due; I'm going to look for it later and try to link up.  It was such a great site.  I'll do my best.

So, even though it is afternoon on St. Patrick's Day, if you are feeling a little lacking in the celebration department (as I was), but your kids are too young to do the whole lephrachauns and rainbows thing (as mine are), you can do this very quick and very inexpensive craft in about ten minutes, not counting time for glue to dry.  Make your own Shamrock Wands!

Starring in this craft:

Jax and his good buddy Harper

Materials:

3 small unfinished wooden hearts

1 small wooden dowel

green paint

craft glue

something small, flat, and round to hold the hearts together, like a button, small unfinished wooden circle, or a penny

Directions:

First, have your kids paint the small wooden hearts green on all sides.

As you can see, Harper is very good at following directions.  Jax is not so much.

When they have finished painting the hearts, put them aside. 

Why do our hearts look turquoise?  Not sure.  Weird lighting, I guess.  They were most definitely green.

Then have the kids paint the dowel.  This will be "handle," if you will, of their shamrock wand.  Jax chose red (shocker) and Harper painted hers white. 

Let it all dry.  Go eat lunch.  Read some books.  Play.  Come back later.

Secure the hearts in a shamrock fashion with some kind of flat, round object like a button or penny.  You can get unfinished wooden discs when you buy the hearts, but I forgot, so we improvised and used a penny.

Then secure the hearts and penny-like object to your dowel with glue and/or tape and you have a wand!

The kids were really excited about them.  I know Harper doesn't look it...

...but she hates smiling for photos right now so that's the best we can do.

Jax loved his but of course shook his very vigorously, causing the hearts to fall off.  The pennies look cool but aren't the best thing to secure the hearts; the hearts don't love being glued to it.  I put Scotch tape on the back and it seemed to help.

If you are feeling really crafty, you could add ribbons or glitter to make it super celebratory.  I wanted to write "Mommy's Lucky Charm" (one word on each of the hearts), but my pen was being leaky and the hearts were pretty small.  Improvise and improve upon these as you will!  Come on, California friends!  You still have plenty of time to get your St. Paddy's Day craft on!

Hope you all have a wonderful day and are as lucky as I am.