Monday, February 28, 2011

A House for Leprechauns


In general Leprechauns are very clever creatures who love to collect treasure and be surrounded by nature. Some are solitary and quiet, known to be shoemakers or craftsmen. Other's love to gather together in big groups throwing parties where they dance and sing the entire night away.

There is a long history of people trying to capture leprechauns in order to get their gold or be granted the three wishes they can bestow. Because of this Leprechauns are very wary of humans and most of the time go unseen.

Some Leprechauns are very mischievous, and especially like to play tricks on humans the night before St. Patrick's Day. Other's (while still weary of humans) will show kindness towards those that bestow kindness on them- leaving these people some sort of lucky object or small treasure in return for the supplies given to them.

So in hopes of encouraging a group of nice, non-tricky leprechauns to take up residents near us I've built them a house.



This started out life as a plain wood birdhouse that I purchased at the craft store.


The individual petals of a pine cone made the perfect roof shingles.


Since leprechaun's love green, I painted most of the upper portion of the house a bright kelly color. Then filled the lower sections with small rocks.



Both the pine cones and rocks were attached with hot glue.



Once all my rocks were in place I filled in the gaps with white glue that was tinted gray using a few drops of craft paint. The final touch was to add moss between some of the rocks. This was the mister's idea and I just love how it added yet even more green and a different texture of natural material to the structure.



And a small detail, but important none the less, I painted the door knobs gold. Once finished the entire thing can get a coat or two of sealer to protect it from the elements.

Admittedly this house is a bit fussy for smaller kids to make on their own but it would be a wonderful family project. You don't even need to use hot glue- regular glue would work great the drying time would just be longer. You could also simplify this by not including the rocks (which were really the only fussy part). Or by using a simpler bird house, a flower pot, or even a milk carton as the base material of the house. You can really let your imagination run wild with this.

The night before St. Patrick's Day leave your house outside or by a window with a note to the Leprechauns. In the morning you might just find that it's disappeared and a little bit of lucky treasure has been left in it's place.


It's also fun to take a walk around and see if you can find where the leprechaun's have put their new home... if you're lucky you might just get a glimpse of it... but you'll probably never see the Leprechaun's who've taken up residence inside.




9 comments:

  1. WOW!! You are amazing! This house is SO cool!!

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  2. This is awesome and I'm bookmarking it to make later!

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  3. That is so cool. I have a couple of Aunts who would LOVE This!

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  4. Thanks for such nice comments Lilaloa, Kalee and Christie. I really appreciate it!

    Kalee I'd love to get a link or see pictures if you make one!

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  5. This is adorable and so so charming! I love it.

    megan
    craftycpa.blogspot.com

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  6. Girl, this the best house I've ever seen! That is one lucky Leprechaun!
    I shared your post with my fb peeps here :
    http://www.facebook.com/LearningIsChildsPlay
    You Rock!

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  7. Thanks for linking Laura!

    And thanks Kathy for taking the time to leave a comment!

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