So why would you want to catch a leprechaun might be your first question. St. Patty’s day is right around the corner, and if you are feeling so lucky, and you believe, you may just stumble upon a true leprechaun. Legend says that if you catch a leprechaun he will have to tell you where his gold stash is hidden in return for his freedom from your trap. First, you must know that leprechaun’s are tricky fellows, but they love gold, rainbows, and four leaf clovers. That is the crafty formula my tween and I used in building our own rainbow leprechaun trap!

Remember these colored popsicle craft sticks? Well, I couldn’t resist using them in this simple craft, especially since I have them in rainbow colors. All you need to build your rainbow trap is some colored craft sticks and some craft or school glue.

• First I laid down craft sticks right next to each other, enough to equal the length of one stick. I arranged them in rainbow order.
• Then, I put a line of glue on one side along two craft sticks, and attached them to the top and bottom of the row of rainbow sticks. This will create the bottom of the box and secure them all once the glue is dry.
• Finally, I built of the walls of the box by dotting glue on each corner, and attaching 4 sticks of each rainbow color. You can continue this until you get the height that you want.
• I repeated the first and second steps to create the box lid and let the both pieces dry.

Now to set the trap! Use one more loose craft stick to prop up the door on top of the box and fill with tempting leprechaun treats. Once the leprechaun takes a treat, the hinge will fall, the door will shut,  and hopefully you will have captured a leprechaun.

What will you fill your trap with?

We made a sweet rainbow stick and offered some gold coins (or golden Oreos®) to try and tempt a leprechaun. To make your own rainbow stick (would also make a festive sweet snack) all you need to do is melt colored candy melts in a rainbow pattern on two pretzels rods. Lay the candy melt disks on top of the pretzel rods, put them in a preheated 200 degree oven for about 10 minutes until they get a little melty. Pull them out of the oven and put colored M&Ms® on top of each coordinating color. Place in the refrigerator for the candy melts to set up again.

For the final touch, we made four-leaf clovers out of green pipe cleaners so that we could leave a trail to lure a leprechaun.

Even if you aren’t Irish, it’s still fun to try and catch a leprechaun. And whatever the leprechaun doesn’t eat from your trap – your tween will certainly enjoy! Happy hunting!

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