Illustrator Jen Goode of JGoode Designs, has put out another great color page for the upcoming holiday!  Her St. Patrick’s Day page is adorable and features a charming little leprechaun lad!  This is a great activity for younger girls to celebrate.

Download the coloring page here.

Of course, while mentioning St. Patrick’s Day, you should work some history into the activity.  Saint Patrick’s Day (Irish: Lá Fhéile Pádraig) colloquially St. Paddy’s Day or simply Paddy’s Day, is an annual feast day that celebrates Saint Patrick (circa AD 385–461), the most commonly recognized of the patron saints of Ireland, and is generally celebrated on March 17th.

Girl Scout Birthday is March 12th, commemorating the day that Girl Scouts founder Juliette Gordon Low officially registered the first 18 girl members. You can have a great birthday party in your meeting that week to celebrate the start of something pretty special for millions of girls for the last 98 years!

The Girl Scout store is selling a lot of patches for the event, so be sure to order enough for all the girls in your troop to commemorate your party.  My favorite is the Celebrate Girl Scout Week patch.  If you want to have a great birthday party for Girl Scouts, Birthday in a Box has great Fairy Party Ultimate Birthday Box that would be great for younger girls.  Of course, depending on when you usually have your meetings, you can also tie in a St. Patrick’s Day celebration with a St Patrick’s Day Party Deluxe Box.

Regardless of what you do, be sure to teach the girls all about Juliette Gordon Low and the beginning of the Girl Scouts.  It’s important that we know where we came from, and helping the girls to understand the organization they’re a part of will do just that.  There is a fountain of information available on the Girl Scouts website.

This is a great easy craft for younger girls.  I used to make these with my grandmother too, so it’s a great family craft.  You can use these very basic instructions or allow the girls to embellish the reindeer clothespins more with paints, glitter, ribbons, etc.  Super easy and super cheap.

Materials Needed:

• Wood spring clothespins
• #12 flat brush
• Water container
• Palette or plastic plate
• Red mini pom pom
• Small wiggle eyes
• Glue gun
• Glue sticks
• Thick craft glue
• Honey Brown acrylic paint

Directions:

1. Paint wood area of three clothespins Honey Brown.  Let dry.
2. Position two clothespins side-by-side and adhere with glue.
3. Position third clothespin in opposite direction and adhere to small end of double clothespins for reindeer head.
4. Position and adhere eyes and pom pom nose.

Safety Tips!

1. Adults should work with the hot glue gun only.

Conclusion Paragraph

Quick Shopping for This Project

• Whitney Design 04700 Wood Clothespins – 50 Count – 72mm
• Assorted Kids Brush Tub
• Bienfang Multi-Palette Disposable Paper Palette 9 in. x 12 in. pad of 50 without thumb hole
• Accent Design Pom Pom 3 mm 40 pc Red
• Wiggle Eyes 5mm-30mmPaste-On 120/pkg
• Cables to Go 40 Watt Hot Glue Gun
• All-Temp Glue Sticks
• Aleene’s Original Tacky Glue – 1pt
• DecoArt Americana Acrylic 2 oz Honey Brown

This is a fun holiday project shared by my friend Jen Goode of JGoodeDesigns!  Her passion is penguins, and she’s designed a fun gift tag project featuring penguins as the star!  This project will require color copies of the PDF she’s designed, which can be downloaded here.  Here’s the finished product!

Materials Needed:

• Printed PDFs (on a thicker card stock paper)
• Scissors
• Glue
• Hole Punch
• Ribbon

Directions:

1. Use a thick paper like card stock or construction paper to print the PDF out.  Either print enough copies for all the girls in your troop (plus extras in case of mistakes), or have color copies run on thick paper at a local copy shop.
2. Use decorative scissors to add a fun edge to the tags, or be creative with regular scissors.
3. Cut out the penguin squares.
4. Glue onto snowflake paper pattern.
5. Cut squares again, leaving a fun border.
6. Punch a hole in the corner.
7. Add ribbon.
8. Write To: and From: on the back.

Safety Tips!

1. Use non-toxic glue.
2. Depending on the age of your girls, be sure to supervise their use of the scissors and hole punch.

This is a perfect gift for the girls to make several and take home.  Or, if you are planning a holiday gift exchange within the troop, the girls can make these tags just for those gifts.  You can pair this project with making your own wrapping paper, as well!

Quick Shopping for This Project

• Zig Zagz Decorative Scissors
• Elmer’s Washable School Glue – 4oz
• 1/16″ Hole Punch
• Doodlebug Boutique 1 yard Trims-7PK/Blue Jean
• 8-1/2”x11” Cardstock Packs-60PK/White

Thanksgiving is next week, and this is a great craft to take up a meeting around this time of year.  As well, this craft can very easily be done while teaching the girls more about the origins of American Thanksgiving and the importance of tradition and family.  If t-shirts are a little outside the budget for your troop during this down economy, you can change the medium to poster board and make the same design on posters for decorations during Thanksgiving.

Materials Needed:

• White t-shirt – pre-washed
• Fabric paint (nontoxic): red, gold, green, orange, brown, and white
• Plaid alphabet foam stamps
• T-shirt board or wax paper
• Paper plate or pallet paper
• Paper towels
• Sponge brush

Directions:

1. Place the t-shirt board inside of the t-shirt.
2. Use the sponge brush to place paint colors on the girl’s hand and fingers.
3. Have the girl steadily place her hand on the shirt to print the turkey, pressing gently on each finger to make sure the paint prints.  You may need to hold her hand to help keep the print from smearing.
4. Carefully lift her hand straight up off the shirt to avoid smudging.  Immediately wash her hands with soap and water.
5. Brush red paint on foam alphabet stamps and press on shirt and let dry.
6. Use fabric paint to add detail to turkey, such as legs, beak and eye and let dry.

Safety Tips!

1. Adult supervision is required at all times.
2. Ensure that all paint is dry before you let the girls take their t-shirts home.
3. Double check that all paints used are nontoxic.

Remember that if you don’t have a t-shirt board, you can place a sheet of wax paper inside the shirt to prevent transfer of the paint.

Quick Shopping for This Project

• White Youth Medium T-Shirt
• Puffy Tulip Dimensional Fabric Paint Red
• Pearl Tulip Dimensional Fabric Paint Gold
• Pearl Tulip Dimensional Fabric Paint Fluor Green
• Slick Tulip Dimensional Fabric Paint Orange
• Slick Tulip Dimensional Fabric Paint Brown
• Slick Tulip Dimensional Fabric Paint White
• Simply Stamps Foam Alphabet Stamps-Alphabet
• Reynolds #330 12×25′ Wax Paper
• Frosty White 7″ Paper Dessert Plates (24 count)
• Bounty Basic Prints Big Roll, 70 Sheets
• Sml Spouncer Stencil Brush-3/4″ Diameter Sponge

This is one of my favorite crafts to do even as an adult!  It’s super simple and even younger girls can do it with supervision.  Older girls may get a kick out of this craft since it is a more functional craft.  Etched glass is completely dishwasher safe and the etching is permanent, so these items can be used for years.  Feel free to experiment with other glassware like drinking glasses, vases, and candle holders.

A word to the wise – I have not had good luck with frosted or colored glass, so for best results stick to the clear glass.  This tutorial will tell you how to do basic knock-out style lettering, but stencil kits can also be purchased from most craft stores for around $12 for a few pages worth of rub-on single use stencils.

Materials Needed:

• Armour Etch Glass Etching Cream
• Glass canisters
• ¾” vinyl letters
• Masking tape
• Disposable gloves
• Paint brush

Directions:

1. Using the masking tape (or blue painters tape, both work fine) to make a rectangle about half an inch larger than the encased lettering.  Spell out the desired contents of the canister inside the taped rectangle (canisters can be used for all kinds of things in the kitchen, like rice, sugar, beans, etc, or for smaller craft items like buttons, safety pins, needles, etc.).
2. Put on the plastic gloves for protection and apply a thick layer of the etching cream, within the masked off area.  Spread the cream evenly over the entire stenciled area, being careful not to extend outside the lines.  You should overlap the making tape boundary a little, but not over the outside edge.
3. Follow the directions on the etching cream for how long to keep it on the glass.  Usually it ranges between 30 seconds and 5 minutes, depending on desired results.
4. Without removing the stencil, wash off all of the etching cream with tap water.  Remove the tape and letters, then thoroughly clean the glass with dish soap or window cleaner.

Safety Tips!

1. Adult supervision is required when using the etching cream.
2. Adults can allow younger girls to apply the desired stencils and take care of applying and removing the etching cream themselves.

Quick Shopping for This Project

• Armour Etch Glass Etching Cream-3 oz/Permanent
• Scotch Masking Tape 3/4”X1000”
• Painters’ Masking Tape 3/4”x60yd-Blue
• Press On Vinyl Uppercase Letters/Numbers, 1/2″ High, Black
• White Taklon Wash Brush-Size 1/4”