The 3 L's of St. Patrick's Day: Layouts, Leprechauns & Luck

"The Story of the Leprechaun" 12x12 St. Patrick's Day Scrapbook Layout

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Today is a day of green things, rainbows and luck (at least in the modern day sense). It's also the time when a sneaky leprechaun visits our house (re: The Story of the Leprechaun). He starts leaving things on the front porch about a week or two before St. Patrick's Day and even though my oldest daughter writes him notes pleading for him to stay or visit her at school, he doesn't allow himself to be caught.

A week ago, the leprechaun "sent" a postcard to my girls (and I'm sure he would have taken it to the post office if he had time):

Decoupaged St. Patrick's Day Postcard

Can you believe the leprechaun decoupaged a postcard? That's what my 8-year-old noticed when she was looking at it. He's a crafty one! The next day, my daughter asked me if I was pretending to be the leprechaun because "leprechauns don't decoupage, mommies do." I told her that ANYONE can decoupage (with free St. Patrick's Day clip art from Vintage Holiday Crafts).

So she left a note on the front porch for him and checked it each day, waiting for some sort of response from the leprechaun. Two days ago, he took the letter and left a couple coins. Of course there was plenty of excitement and the girls are little bit richer. I wonder what he'll bring today.

There are plenty of fun (non-alcoholic) things to do on St. Patrick's Day like make a rainbow with paper scraps:

St. Patrick's Day Paper Rainbow

Check out another version of the rainbow over at It's a Crafty Life. My rainbow was also included in a colorful roundup of all things Roy G. Biv at Funky Polkadot Giraffe. And if you can't get enough rainbows, visit Simple As That for St. Patrick's Day printables. 

Still want more? Do you have Lucky Charms lovers? Then they will love this "I'm So Lucky" printable for treat bags by the eighteen25 sisters. Short on time? 30-Minute Martha has a few quick ideas for St. Patrick's Day. Or if you have some extra time and your kids want to catch a leprechaun, Family Fun has a three different traps to try.

And since we are on the subject of luck, there's a little challenge for MemoryWorks consultants this month with a "lucky" theme (if you want to join the fun, sign-up to be a consultant) and here's the layout I created with MemoryWorks supplies:

"I Love Life" 12x12 MemoryWorks Scrapbook Layout

I love life. There are so many beautiful and inspiring things on earth and I journaled about them at the bottom of the page, but I kept thinking about Japan. My words didn't feel real as I thought about all the devastation in Japan. Although nature is beautiful, we were reminded that it has a dark side through recent catastrophic events. I destroyed my journaling like the earthquake and tsunami destroyed so many lives.

I am lucky to be alive. I am lucky to be warm, with food and water, shelter and my loving family safe and near.

Even though I'm celebrating all things green today with my family, I can't stop thinking about the people of Japan. I wish we could bottle all this St. Patrick's lucky day feeling and send it to Japan. They need it more than we do.

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The story of the leprechaun

Long ago, March 2009, a little leprechaun hopped on a rainbow and traveled from Ireland all the way to Ohio. He wrote wonderful notes and brought shiny trinkets to a six-year-old girl while she sat in her kindergarten classroom. Each day after arriving home from school, the six-year-old would rush to the front door to see if the leprechaun left anything that day. She wanted so badly to catch this little leprechaun and put a Build-A-Bear box out on the front porch with hopes of catching a small, green fairyman.

Once St. Patrick's Day came and went, the six-year-old girl still checked the front porch. The leprechaun had to write a note to her saying that he had to go back to Ireland since his family needed him, but not to worry since he would be back the next year.

That six-year-old grew a year older and was now seven. She still dreamed of meeting a little leprechaun and started writing notes to him on March 1, 2010. The leprechaun knew that the seven-year-old was thinking of him so he sent her a card and stickers in the mail. He told her to leave a pot of gold out for him by March 15.

When March 15 arrived, the seven-year-old girl wrote a note, left a pot of (fake) gold on the porch and went off to school. The little leprechaun took the gold and gave the girl a shamrock headband and the next day, he dropped off a pair of shamrock earrings.

Today is St. Patrick's Day and the leprechaun has already stopped by the little girl's house, left all of the (fake) gold he took on Monday and some he took last year. Now there are green fairy wings waiting for this seven-year-old girl to remind her that leprechauns are really fairies in Irish mythology (something she doesn't believe right now).

And this was my leprechaun story. Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Below is a scrapbook layout I created to celebrate the month of March. The bottom-left photograph shows the six-year-old with her pot of gold on St. Patrick's Day 2009.


Supplies include MemoryWorks Simple Stories, DCWV cardstock, Scenic Route arrow, Me&My Big Ideas flowers.