The Rainbow Necklace: A Simple and Fun St. Patrick's Day Craft for Kids

St. Patrick's Day is a very fun time of year, where you can dress up in crazy outfits and wear crazy jewelry. St. Patrick's Day can also be a great time of year for children and they can really learn a lot from various crafts and activities that can be done for St. Patrick's Day. If you are looking for two simple and fun crafts for your child on St. Patrick's Day here are a couple really neat crafts.

The first craft is the Rainbow necklace, which is a very great St. Patrick's Day craft for a child of any age. For the rainbow necklace you will need Polymer clay in all of the colors of the rainbow and ribbon that should also be in all of the colors of the rainbow. If you want to save money on the Polymer clay you can just get the red, yellow and blue so that you could mix them together to make the rest of the colors. You can get the Polymer clay at any hardware store or craft store for about ten dollars. Polymer clay is safe for children to handle but as with all crafts and craft supplies, you always want to supervise your child to make sure they do not attempt to eat a craft supply and choke. You do not have to get Polymer clay if you feel this would be unsafe or too much money, you can improvise and you can use items like putty. You also will need scissors to cut the ribbons and you will need a knife because you might have to cut extra ends from the Polymer clay.

The first thing you are going to need to do in order to make your rainbow necklace is take a small section of each color of the Polymer clay and have your child roll it so it is thin. Your child should roll the Polymer clay so that it looks like a long sausage link, and this is achieved by moving your hands up and down with the clay inside your hand. You then need to show your child a picture of a rainbow so that they can lay the colors of the Polymer clay out in that order. The color pattern should start at the bottom with purple, blue, green, yellow, orange and then red at the top of the rainbow. In order to get the Polymer clay to stick together you will have to press down on it lightly pressing the edges together. Your child should then make the Polymer clay mold into the shape of the rainbow and then you can use a knife to cut off any excess pieces of the Polymer clay. You can then have your child make a hole at the top of the rainbow with a pencil or other circular small tool and this will be where the ribbon will go in order to make a necklace. Bake the Polymer clay as instructed and let it cool for the designated amount of time before trying to touch the clay. Letting the clay sit for a while after you bake it will ensure that the rainbow will stay in the appropriate shape and that it is able to be touched and moved around. For the ribbons you can lay them all out on a flat surface and tie them together at one end so you will have a base in order to braid the ribbon. Separate the six ribbons into three groups containing two ribbons each and then braid them together forming a semi-braid. The last thing you need to do is thread the ribbons through the necklace hole you created on your rainbow and then tie the ends together so it forms a necklace. This is a very fun and easy craft that a child can make on their own as long as they are under adult supervision. The rainbow necklace would also be a fun St. Patrick's Day craft for a class or maybe a setting where you are caring for more than one child.