21 St. Patrick's Day Crafts and Decorations

Feeling lucky? It could be the luck of the Irish. After all, everyone is Irish on St. Patrick's Day. On March 17, there's much to do from cooking corned beef and cabbage and donning your finest green attire to raising a glass in honor of Irish pride. You can (and should) also make and decorate as part of the festivities. We have ideas for any style of occasion.

Attending a formal event near the holiday? Add some luck right onto your sleeve with our Embroidered Four-Leaf Clover how-to, as pictured here. Hosting friends and family? Gather together for a St. Patrick's Day lunch of healthy greens with elegantly folded four-leaf clover napkins. Or, if you're really feeling the gold and green spirit, see the cocktail party we hosted in a lush greenhouse with balloons galore. (It's happy hour inspiration beyond the green-colored beer.)

Have a group of wee ones you're planning to celebrate the holiday with? Round them up for a kid-friendly crafternoon. Our St. Patrick's Day crafts are simple, fun activities sure to put a smile on your children's faces—catch a leprechaun with a homemade trap, follow a magical set of footsteps to one pot of gold, or make it a treasure hunt to find and collect surprise balls... then, unravel the crepe paper to see the tiny lucky tokens hidden inside.

Don't forget those who live near or far. Our gilded paper wreath offers a cheerful welcome to guests at the front door, fresh spring flowers and clover can be gathered into a showstopping arrangement, and anyone who can't travel to attend your party would love to receive a lucky four-leaf clover card in the mail. However you choose to celebrate, make it special by channeling your inner Irishwoman (or man) and embrace the kelly green.

Ornamental cabbage may not be a centerpiece staple (yet), but consider inviting a few heads to the table—it's lush like a peony yet much hardier, and the decorative veg's bright-green leaves make it a natural for St. Patrick's Day. Just mix in delicate blooms to fashion an arrangement as fresh as an Irish spring. Complement cabbages with flowers in harmonizing hues—like the hellebores, ranunculus, and carnations here.

Good fortune is about to fall into your family's laps. These napkin rings are embellished with toadstools, ladybugs, and frogs—symbols of good luck and prosperity. And they're a cinch to make: Just hot-glue the toys onto grosgrain ribbon and tie them on. For our ombré effect, mix a fabric dye bath in a plastic storage bin, and clothespin napkins around the top edge, hanging straight down so the three bottom inches are submerged. Remove after five to 10 minutes, set per the dye-package directions, and fade out.

Shop Now: Factory Direct Craft Artificial Mini Mushroom Frogs, $10 for 12, factorydirectcraft.com; SnowTing Tiny Wooden Ladybugs, $5 for 100, amazon.com; Yueton Mini Foam Mushrooms, $9 for 100, amazon.com; Threshold Easy Care Napkins in White, $10 for 4, target.com.

You don't have to be rolling in clover to appreciate its natural beauty. Instead, welcome St. Patrick's Day with a centerpiece full of four-leaf potential. Tuck a few of the easy-to-care-for perennials, which are readily available at garden centers from spring through early fall, and an equally low-maintenance oxalis (aka purple-leaf shamrock, center), into terra-cotta pots. Both varieties will work their magic long past March—just add sunshine and water.

Shop Now: Mossed Redstone Standard Clay Pots, 4" by 3", from $4, jamaligarden.com; Tory Burch Oiseau Salad Plate, in Green, $148 for four, toryburch.com; Sferra Festival Napkin, in Willow (similar to shown), $57 for four, sferra.com.

The lore of the leprechaun has been passed down for centuries. The legend goes that these pesky little troublemakers are notorious for causing mischief the night before St. Patrick's Day. Fortunately, there's a way to fight back. Our simple-to-create leprechaun trap will help you and your family capture one—or at the very least, receive a few gold chocolate coins for your trouble.

Wearing green is a given on St. Patrick's Day. This year, craft a dapper little top hat of your own and channel your inner leprechaun: a heart-shaped paper punch produces the cutouts that, when arranged on a paper stem with tape, forms a shamrock shape.

The traditionally lucky four-leaf clover may be hard to find, but this wreath promises an abundance of them.

It's easy being green with these super-simple DIY bracelets: Simply slip a charm on a leather cord, and secure it with fisherman's knots. They're perfect as small gifts and they make a cute accessory for yourself. 

Lead the way to pots of gold—and your St. Patrick's Day party—with this colorful décor idea. We also like it as a backdrop for photos. 

Though it is the quintessential color of spring, somehow green only seems to make it into a bouquet incidentally, through a stem or a leaf. Bring in the beginnings of spring with a lively arrangement of greens, considering green tulips, chartreuse gladioli, and lady's mantle. The small vase holds a bouquet of green hydrangeas; behind it is a mix of euphorbias, hydrangeas, and bells of Ireland.

Shop Now: West Elm Reactive Glaze Green Vase, from $20, westelm.com; World Market Wide Neck Clear Glass Vase, $14.99, worldmarket.com.

Whether you're serving fresh fruit juice or a set of signature cocktails, these swizzle sticks add a happy-go-lucky touch. Simply cut out five-inch squares from green card stock for these easy, celebratory sippers. Fold each square in half diagonally, creating a triangle, and then fold in half once more to make a smaller triangle before trimming off the outer points. Unfold the paper halfway and cut a small "V" at the bottom center. Next, unfold the shamrock and crease the paper diagonally, reversing the direction of the fold. Repeat to make another diagonal crease and slide the card-stock shamrock onto one end of a green straw. Now you have your very own lucky straw.

Shop Now: Recollections Green Cardstock Paper, 79¢ a sheet, michaels.com.

Clover is grown in bunches, and similarly, this crepe paper garland unfolds from one clover to dozens. Use our printable template and a rolled party streamer to make a shamrock garland that lets you string up your own luck with ease. This garland is as easy to create as printing the template and cutting out shamrocks from a 25-inch piece of crepe-paper streamer.

For a fun St. Patrick's Day treat, skip the dyed-green milk and instead give the kids surprise balls filled with good-luck charms. They'll love unwrapping them as much as the toys they find inside. Print clip-art labels onto adhesive paper and cut around the circles. Then scrunch the crepe paper into a Ping-Pong-size ball, and place the end of a crepe-paper roll on the ball and wind the paper around it. As you go, add in trinkets so each is trapped between the layers, switching colors for an extra surprise (cut the first color and wrap over it with a second hue). Then once the ball has reached softball size, finish by adhering the charm to the outside of the ball.

Those mischievous little leprechauns are hard to catch, but easy to spot when they leave behind a trail. Surprise little ones with this secret path to a pot o' gold or chocolate coins. Simply cut shoe-shaped footsteps out of card stock and let them find the way.

Four-leaf clovers are rare enough to have inspired legends and songs, but you can make your own good fortune with a set of handmade stationery. For friends and family that live far from home, send one of these whimsical greeting cards. Start by cutting a rectangle of colored card stock (twice the height of your envelope) and crease it in half with a bone folder. Then cut a square of slightly smaller card stock in a different color, and glue to the front of the card using a glue stick so as to avoid any lumps. Pick three-leaf clovers from the yard and place them between two sheets of paper, pressing them inside a heavy book for a few days until dry. Leave one clover intact and remove a single leaf from another. Adhere with a glue stick directly onto the card-stock square, and carefully place the three-leaf clover. Then add a fourth leaf to the stem and let dry.

Hide these golden gems around the yard for a treasure hunt, or display as clusters for a simple, seasonal decoration. Transform everyday river stones into chunks of gold by applying gilding adhesive to the stone and let dry until clear and tacky to the touch. Wearing gloves, drape a gold leaf sheet over the stone, smoothing with your fingertips. Burnish with a soft bristle brush and continue until the stone is covered before letting dry or 24 hours.

We bet St. Patrick himself would have approved of these little green accessories. Choose a mix of printed and solid green fabrics for an extra-festive look. On waxed paper, use a paintbrush to coat both sides of a cotton swatch with liquid starch and let dry before ironing the fabric to flatten. Print out shamrock templates and cut them out before tracing them on fabric and cutting. Crease each leaf in half lengthwise. For the stem, cut a four-inch piece of floral wire and fold in half, twisting until the ends form a tiny "V." Bend the "V" forward slightly and attach to the back of each shamrock with a small dab of craft glue. Tie a bow around one stem or a bunch of shamrocks and use a corsage pin to fasten to your clothing.

Whip up this whimsical St. Patrick's Day arrangement with a combination of naturally green Prado carnations and regular white carnations that are dyed green. Soak three five-inch mini oasis hearts with water and floral food. Connect them with binder clips to create a shamrock shape. Next, gather an assortment of Prado, white, and dyed carnations, cutting the stems at an angle to about one-inch. Insert them into the oasis, following along the outside of the shape until complete.

Little girls love to wear pretty things in their hair. And nothing's prettier than a tiny clover. Attach a barrette, comb, or bobby pin, and you can wear springlike blooms even in the depths of winter.

Cut small rounded leaves from green felt, then stitch them together. Most real clovers have three leaves, but you can make four-leaf clovers to wear for good luck, if you like. Next, sew a sliver of felt to the back for a slim stem. Use a tiny dab of glue to hold clover in place on a bobby pin, and sew it to the top part of the pin to secure. To secure, sew flower to barrette with a few stitches.

Shop Now: Creatology Green Felt, 49¢ per sheet, michaels.com.

Transform white carnations into a lucky shade of green (with just four ingredients) in honor of St. Patrick's Day. Mix food coloring with water according to the directions on the package, making sure the water reaches a dark, rich shade of green and fill a vase with this mixture. Next, cut ends of carnation stems under running water and place the carnations into your vase, letting sit overnight. The flowers will soak up the food coloring through the stem, resulting in vibrant green petals.