Crafty Cara’s St. Patrick’s Day Crafts! by Cara Potapshyn Meyers

Hello crafty readers! As you can see, I have been quite the craft maven lately! Although I am a speck Irish, I couldn’t help getting into the spirit of St. Patrick’s Day with these fun items! All of them have links to YouTube sites, which I will highlight. If I have embellished an item, I will either provide instructions or give a link to a website or tutorial. I hope you enjoy trying out some of these! Let me know which are your favorites!

Rainbow Loom Headband

I took the tutorial of this headband from a darling young lady named Jayce, who has a website called Craft Life.com. Here is her tutorial. What I did differently, since my hair is much thinner and more fine, is glued the Rainbow loom headband onto a regular, green, fabric headband. Make sure to use CLEAR glue. Do NOT use any type of super glue, instant glue or hot glue! I tried them and the rubber bands disintegrated. Use plain, ‘ole clear glue. To make the Rainbow Loom headband stay put on the headband form, simply loop the last of the rubber bands around the ends of the headband and glue. Voilà! Fancy, festive headband!

Leprechaun Bracelet

Clover Bracelet

Here are two Rainbow Loom bracelets, both designed by a local Mom with a website called Made by Mommy.com. The left bracelet has a tutorial for the leprechaun hat. At the end of that tutorial, there are links posted to the clover video, the making of the bracelet and putting on the charms. The decorative beads at the top I am saving to show you in my own video! Stay tuned! 

Rainbow Loom Keychain

This is a quick, fun keychain! I actually made the left-hand bracelet above for a Mom friend and the keychain below for her son to put on his backpack, sports bag or even just hang in his room. This is a hybrid Rainbow loom design. I took the block letter idea from a Made by Mommy tutorial, however instead of laying the block letters horizontally, I layed them vertically across and used matching pony beads to fill in above and below the name. Here is a tutorial to show you how to lay down the pony beads. For this project, I used BEAD GLUE to hold each bead flat against the one below. Use WAX PAPER under this project when using bead glue so that the glue – and your project – don’t end up glued to whatever is underneath. Yes, I learned the hard way. To finish off this project, side a key fob through the rubber bands at top and a pony bead on to the bands at the bottom. A pretty, useful gift for anyone!

Next up are scarves. The one on the left can be made in two hours if you work straight through. The yarn is called Sundance Shaggy Frill. It can be purchased at local craft stores or online. Mine is knitted, although it can also be crocheted. I included a photo of the yarn sleeve, which provides instructions, however this tutorial should be more helpful. It shows you how to knit with a similar type yarn. Once you catch on, these scarves are super easy and really enjoyable to make!

Sundance Shaggy Frill Scarf

Instruction Sleeve

Swerve Scarf

Last, and the absolute quickest, easiest scarf to make, EVER, is the Red Heart Boutique Swerve! In this tutorial, a woman shows you how to make the Swerve scarf in 30 (yes, 30…) seconds USING ONLY YOUR HANDS! I must admit, it took me between 60-90 seconds to make a Swerve scarf. But if it is still cold where you are, as it is here in the Northeast, and you need a quick St. Paddy’s day gift to make in a snap, this is the one to try! At least watch the one-minute tutorial! You’ll be blown away! Again, this yarn can be purchased at your local craft store or online. And if you plan to be in New York City for the annual St. Patrick’s Day parade, the forecast predicts that it might be a bit chilly! You’ll love being bundled in a soft, warm Swerve scarf!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all who are of Irish heritage as well as those who simply want to partake of the wearin’ of the green!

Tags: "Crafty Cara", Cara Potapshyn Meyers, clover and leprechuan bracelets, Craft Life, Made by Mommy, Rainbow Loom Headband, Rainbow Loom Keychain, Red Heart Swerve scarf, St. Patrick's Day crafts, Sundance Shaggy Frill Scarf, YouTube Rainbow Loom tutorials, YouTube tutorials