Everyone's Irish - On March 17th!!

In the midst of all the excitement of green food and leprechaun mischief this is a great little project. This started with a Dick Blick canvas , the 8x8 square ( I told you I'm on a mission to try all the sizes they offer in the economy packs.) I painted it blue and striped it in turquoise. The shamrock is created using 3 hearts and a wooden spoon shape ( they are in packages by the popsicle sticks at Hobby Lobby where I can wander for hours... ) These were painted green and then given some polka dots using the eraser end of a pencil ( a fav tool of mine) and children love making those dots! I squeeze out the paint on a tray and we practice "dip and dot" standing up and keeping our arm up and out of the wet  paint dots.

(If you are in a situation where you can incorporate a faith based message then the shamrock is a great opportunity to include a lesson on the Trinity and the real St. Patrick)

I used my Crop-A-Dile to punch holes in the canvas for a fun, beaded wire hanger. (Still don't have a Crop-A-Dile?? Go get one. Right Now.) For classes with young children I use a pipe cleaner for the hanger and for older children I use a a finer wire. For classes, I go ahead and make the holes ahead of time.

OK, looking good. You can stop here or you can add some ribbon ( or torn fabric strips- my budget substitute for ribbon.)  I, however, have no restraint when it comes to ribbon (or that runny, white cheese dip in Mexican restaurants... sorry, off-task !)

 So, a little bit of polka dot ribbon and it's finished. All ready for the Leprechauns! And hopefully a pot of gold!

A couple of thoughts ... First, if budget does not allow for canvases and wood cut outs, this could be easily done using craft foam. You could cut the hearts and stem from green and still use the acrylic paint to dot the shapes. Acrylic "sticks" just fine to the foam. You could still do the cute hanger with a hole punch and a pipe cleaner - gold if you have it - and some pony beads. 

Second, I like to send home some nice, "substantial", "keeper" projects regularly. I was just thinking as I looked at these pictures and the Love canvases that I posted recently that it would be nice to do one seasonally themed canvas each month (the same size) so that they would create a " calendar" of sorts of the school year. It could be very cute displayed in the child's room or playroom. We go to school  August to May so we would only have to double up twice. You could definitely do a Father's day canvas early for June and something patriotic for July and the year would be complete... I can just see it! Hmmmm, I think I'm going to work on that. Keep you posted, literally :)


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