Simple Leprechaun Trap for kids

Bring the magic of St Patricks Day to life with our simple Leprechaun Trap! Step-by-step directions on how to make a leprechaun trap in under an hour!!

This Leprechaun Trap Originally published March 16, 2017. It has been updated for your convenience. 

One thing I definitely have in common with my mom is that we both hate school projects! Don’t get me wrong, I can see why kids love them. And why teachers think they are a fun idea.

And if you are a parent to one child, really they are no big deal. I wouldn’t mind them so much.

But when you have multiple children, all coming home saying “I have to do this big project…” Mom gets a little overwhelmed and begins to detest the school projects!

Mom can only handle so much. And with the already daunting homework routine of 4 kids, plus making sure the kids do regular reading time at home, plus chores, plus family time, plus any extracurricular activities like Scouts or Dance, adding on a big project (and sometimes more than one kid at a time) is just asking too much of poor mom!

Then add to that stress the unrealistic expectation of these projects needing to be elaborate Pinterest worthy. Like Valentine’s Day boxes, or recreating a Native American or early settlers culture for social studies, a big State report binder project with pop out pictures, or the big dreaded Science project with display board and models! Why wouldn’t Moms get a little rebellious?

My mom hated these projects and so do I. But, the kids still get the assignments and we still have to do them. So when I can make something super easy in the middle of all this chaos I go for it!

DIY Leprechaun Trap

This week I had a total Mom fail moment. Miss Jade came home with a note saying they had to make a Leprechaun trap and take them to school on Thursday.

One, this is way too short notice for a Mom. If you want a nice leprechaun trap you need to give a bit more heads up! Especially if you still expect homework to be completed for that week!

But second, this mom totally set the note aside and spaced it until Wednesday mid-morning while I was grocery shopping at Target.

Oh Crap! I need something FAST, and insanely easy to toss together during little Rose’s nap time so miss Jade can take her Leprechaun trap to school the next day.

So, since I was in the store anyway, I stopped over at the dollar section at the Target entrance and found this adorable bug catcher. And my problem was solved!

So let me show you how to make an insanely easy and FAST Leprechaun trap that your kids can take to school!

Or if you happen to be more on top of it than I am, you can even have your kid put it together themselves. It’s really easy. A little paint and a few accents and you are done!

Leprechaun trap supplies:

Affiliate links are used to point you in the right direction to find the supplies that you might not already have on your shelves.

What I love about our Leprechaun trap is that it is oh so super simple, fast and cheap!

• bug catcher (found mine in Target for $3. But it’s seasonal, it might not always be there) In which case get a wooden Insect box.
• FolkArt Chalk Paint IRISH
• Paint brush
• Furniture Wax
• Wax Brush
• Easter Grass
• Pot of Gold accent
• Velcro 3M Command Strips
• Elmers Probond Glue
• Clover Leaf accent to put on the front for decoration or a four leaf clover sticker
• Bag of Gold Coins

I just happened to have a pot of gold and cloverleaf accent left over from a St Patricks Day wreath project that completely failed. So I took them off the wreath and used them for this project instead.

I already had the Irish Folkart chalk paint and furniture wax on hand, left over from our Furniture Makeover Project.

The first step is, you need to paint the box green. Obviously, ours was bright pink. That’s not going to work.

So I unscrewed the little trap door and painted the box and the door IRISH green.

I even went so far as to paint the handle!

Chalk paint is my favorite paint because it dries so fast and there is zero prep work! No sanding or wood conditioning required. I just painted right over. And it covers very well!

I had to wait maybe 10-15 minutes between each coat. Which is much faster than the typical 1 hour wait period for acrylic paint to dry.

Once, you have the box and lid painted and dry, you need to seal it. I use our Furniture Wax. Just really lightly brush over with a wax brush. It doesn’t take much.

Allow that to dry 10-15 minutes.

Glue the Clover Leaf accent to the front of the trap door and set aside to dry. I used Elmers Probond glue for a secure hold.

I used Velcro Command Strips on the bottom of the Pot of gold and placed it in the trap near the back. This secured it in place so it wouldn’t roll all over as Miss Jade carries it to school.

I had to use tongs to get the pot of gold into the Leprechaun trap and secured into the right location.

Reattach the trap door to the Leprechaun trap. Now we get to fill it!

Add in some Easter Grass at the bottom of the leprechaun trap to make it look nice and inviting.

Lastly, toss in some gold coins.

This makes it even more appealing for the leprechaun.

And that’s it! You are done! Easy Peasy!

 

And even better, it is much more durable than the go-to shoe box leprechaun trap. Which means I can even save this for when Miss Rose is required to take a Leprechaun trap to school!

You now have a leprechaun trap in under 1 hour! Total Mom save!

Super fast and easy and can easily be done in an hour to save us all from the Mom Fail moment and come out a triumphant Mom Hero!

And all thanks to a cheap Bug Trap and chalk paint, you also can have this made for your little Leprechaun Hunter in under an hour!

So tell me, do you hate school projects just as much as I do?

For the photographer reader – Photos taken with Canon 6D DSLR and 100mm Macro lens.

Let me know if our Leprechaun Trap helped save the day in your house!

 

BE SURE TO PIN AND SHARE THIS EASY LEPRECHAUN TRAP WITH YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY!