This is our first year making a leprechaun trap! I’m not an overachiever and I know my limits — I want to be a fun mom, but I’m not creating an entire diorama for one holiday. Low-maintenance & low effort activities are all I can manage these days with two little ones under 4… and I’ve made my peace with that. If you’re of a similar mindset, I hope you find this post helpful for your St. Patrick’s Day festivities!
This leprechaun trap is a pretty straightforward setup that’s still super cute: basically, I decorated a tissue box. I thought the top would make the “trap” part pretty easy and that the square box was a nice size.
I wanted a blank canvas so I just wrapped the box in two sheets of white printer paper, cut out the space where the oval “trap” part is, and taped it all together. This created a great simple base for decorating.
I also took another shortcut by buying a really cute printable for the trap’s decorations. All I had to do was print and cut them out! I handled cutting everything out this year because Sophie is still learning how to use scissors, but next year I think it will make great cutting practice for her!
There are a lot of different styles of leprechaun trap printable decorations — just do a Google or Etsy search to find one that suits your aesthetic. They’re affordable and you can print them over and over again! (I really liked this freebie one from the Magic Playbook too).
Lastly, I recommend printing your decorations on cardstock instead of just printer paper because you’ll want the decor items to be sturdier.
…
I also grabbed a few things from our craft closet to zhuzh it up a bit… some chunky glitter, gold star stickers, sparkly eyelash ribbon, two paper straws, and repurposed a few of my placecard holders!
If you don’t have any paper straws, you could totally use popsicle sticks or pipe cleaners instead!
…
And here’s our finished product! I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out and Sophie has really been charmed by it as well. We’re excited to leave it out on Sunday and see what we catch!
Happy St. Patrick’s Day, friends!
Sending hugs —
xx, Natalie