Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, or any day, with this fun Felt Rainbow with a Pot of Gold craft tutorial! This craft is perfect for teaching young children their colors and building their hand strength with various cutting.
This winter has us pretty down in the dumps here in Duluth, MN. Last week we got another 18 inches of snow piled high on top of the feet of accumulation we’re already struggling to navigate around. We could really use some color around here! What perfect timing for some rainbow crafts!
I’ve seen many construction paper rainbows out there so when I walked past this beautiful felt at Michaels it was screaming “buy me”.
Here’s what you’ll need:
• Felt in a rainbow of colors (construction paper will work as a substitute)
• Construction paper for the background and pot of gold (blue or white, green, black or brown)
• Scissors
• Glue (I used Elmer’s Early Learners glue stick and glue pen for the paper and coins and tacky fabric glue for the felt)
• Cotton balls
• Gold coins (I found these at the dollar store St. Patrick’s Day section. These could be substituted with gold or yellow construction paper or felt circles)
• Embellishments (stickers, crayons, markers etc)
You can get your supplies shipped to you from Amazon! Here is a handy list:
DIY Polyester Felt Nonwoven Fabric Sheet for Craft Work 40 Colors Squares 11.81×11.81inch
Pacon Tru-Ray Construction Paper, 9-Inches by 12-Inches, 50-Count, Assorted (103031)Aleenes Original Tacky Glue, 16-OunceElmer’s All Purpose School Glue Sticks, Clear, Washable, 4 Pack, 0.24-ounce sticksPlastic Gold CoinsSwisspers Cotton Balls Jumbo Plus Size, 70 Count100 ~ St. Patrick’s Day Foam Stickers ~ 1″ – 2 1/4″ ~Stanley Guppy 5-Inch Blunt Tip Kids Scissors, Assorted Colors – Pack ofCrayola Broad Point Washable Markers – Pack of 2 (58-7808-2Pack)
&
Here’s what to do:
Cut your rainbow colored felt into strips about one inch wide. I cut three strips per color.
Cut strips into squares. This is a great chance to talk about shapes!
Roughly tear your green construction paper into a strip about 3-4″ tall so it fits the width of your background paper (ours is blue). Encourage kids to rip however it feels right to them. There’s no rules here.
Glue the back of your green strip to the blue background page. Now you have a grassy bottom to your scene.
Glue your colorful felt squares into a rainbow form.
*Tip: I tried using the Elmer’s glue pen and had some trouble with the felt. It stuck fine if the felt was placed only onto the paper. If it overlapped the other felt at all it didn’t stick once dried. I went back in with tacky fabric glue and reapplied the felt to the page and all was happy with the world again.
Apply cotton balls as clouds on each end of your rainbow. I used the Elmer’s Early Learners glue pen for these and it worked perfectly.
Apply glue to the back of your gold coins and place under your rainbow. (I found these at the dollar store.)
Cut out a black construction paper pot and glue it over the top of the gold coins so it looks like they’re peaking out of the top.
Add your own embellishments wherever you’d like. Nora added two dragonfly stickers and hand drawn flowers at the bottom. Be sure to let the felt dry well, hang and enjoy a bit of summer any time of the year!
If you want to share this fun craft on Pinterest (and we sure hope you do), here is pinnable image!
Disclosure: Although I am an Elmer’s Early Learners Ambassador, this post is not sponsored.
Jennifer @ Mom Spotted says
February 25, 2014 at 10:25 amI love this! What a fun project! I have to pin this for my little one to make when he gets a bit older!
courtney b says
February 25, 2014 at 1:19 pmso beautiful! and great for teaching colors too!
vickie couturier says
February 26, 2014 at 5:30 amhow cute,my grandkids would love to make this too
Julie Wood says
February 26, 2014 at 11:31 amThis Rainbow Pot of Gold quilt is so cute, and a very good craft to make when it is so cold outside. I like the pretty colors and need to make this fun craft with my niece!!
Tammy S says
February 26, 2014 at 3:11 pmThis is so cute!! I love it and how easy it is to make. My daughter would love this craft! Thanks for the idea!
Sarah L says
February 26, 2014 at 11:04 pmI like the bright colors for Spring (will it get here? soon? – not soon enough)
Cynthia R says
February 27, 2014 at 8:31 amWhat a cute craft idea, I love it, will definitely go get some materials.
Betty Baez says
February 27, 2014 at 10:04 amI absolutely love this!!!! I go to michaels all the time i’ve never seen the felt squares I guess I haven’t ventured in every part of the store Im on a mission now. Thank you for sharing this with us!
Kati Rose says
February 27, 2014 at 12:11 pmI will be nannying during St. Patty’s and this is a WONDERFUL idea! I might have to add it to my list to do with the kids.
joanna garcia says
February 28, 2014 at 9:35 amWhat a cute and fun project! my girls love rainbow and love that it has a pot of gold too!
Teresa Honores says
February 28, 2014 at 6:18 pmwhat an adorable crafts project! this will entertain the kids for a while! will be getting items tomorrow for the weekend!
ellen beck says
March 1, 2014 at 12:20 amWorking with felt is always alot of fun. Its easy to cut and is so colorful!
Tiffany Schmidt says
March 1, 2014 at 7:25 amHow cute. I love the warmth the felt adds! Great idea. Thank you.
Sarah Hayes says
March 1, 2014 at 11:57 pmthis would be so fun to do with my daughter. and perfect since she is learning her colors. thanks for the idea
Janet W. says
March 4, 2014 at 4:58 amWhat a cute craft! My grandson would have fun placing all of the pieces of felt down to make the rainbow.
Julie Ghrist says
March 5, 2014 at 2:46 pmWhat a cute craft! This would be perfect for my 3 year old preschooler. We can work on colors, fine motor skills and it is easy enough for him to do alone for the most part!
Amanda Buccieri says
March 7, 2014 at 6:56 amLOVE this! My daughter loves rainbows too so this will be a perfect St. Patrick’s Day Craft!!!
Allison Downes says
March 8, 2014 at 11:42 amThis looks like such a cute craft to do with the kids! I think it would be great to help teach with colors as well.
Thanks for sharing!
kelly nicholson says
March 8, 2014 at 5:12 pmthis would male a great gift..only use real gold..thanks
Sarah L says
March 8, 2014 at 5:46 pmIt’s fun to tie crafts to holidays. I like the bright colors for this.
Sandra VanHoey says
March 14, 2014 at 6:57 amThis turned out so cute. My great iece just came home with a box full of craft things her mom sent her so we should give this a try. She would like doing this
Monica Kirkham says
March 14, 2014 at 11:15 amMy daughter loves crafts. She could sit all day drawing, coloring, building, etc… I’m going to show this to her and buy her some of the materials and watch to see what she creates!! I think she’ll absolutely love making crafts using felt instead of just paper and markers!!
Mary Withrow says
March 15, 2014 at 1:50 amA true little artist you have. (I love how serious she looks) I love felt and think it is fantastic when teaching children to sew. It would also be a great folklore fun learning project
Shayna says
March 17, 2014 at 12:27 pmWhat a great idea for St. Patrick’s day crafts 🙂
RICHARD HICKS says
March 31, 2014 at 9:29 pmThis looks like a super fun project to do with the kids. It looks great too!
Shannon says
April 4, 2014 at 4:52 pmWhat a cute little project. Thank you for sharing with us all.
Jean says
April 27, 2014 at 11:25 amI’m so sorry I missed this last month – my girls are rainbow crazy and would have loved this project! I suppose I can just lift the idea and have them make rainbows minus the pot of gold. Thanks for the great idea.
Robin Wilson says
April 27, 2014 at 2:39 pmMy little niece will be coming to visit for a few days and I need to come up with some crafts to do with her. I can just leave off the pot of gold and add more flowers! Voila! Super cute!
Becca @ Mama B says
May 2, 2014 at 1:37 pmI love this! It came out super cute!
cathy says
February 22, 2015 at 10:10 pmLove, love this! We are gearing up in green for St. Patrick’s day and celebrating it with a sweet shamrock shake! I would love for you to stop over and check out my shamrock shake recipe! 🙂
Cathy
Amy | Canary Street Crafts says
February 26, 2015 at 7:01 amSuch a fun project! I have 2 and 5 year old boys and they would love this. Thanks for sharing!
Louise Douglas says
February 26, 2015 at 8:43 pmThis is pretty, and the kids looks like their little pros at it.
Janice Wald says
February 28, 2015 at 12:01 amHi, This really is a cool project! Your child worked on it?! How creative and colorful. Thank you for coming to the Inspire Me Monday Linky party and linking up with us this week.
I’m Janice, one of your hostesses.