I love a good St Patrick’s Day rainbow craft. It gets me in the mood for spring. I like spring. It’s so much less snowy than this winter business we’ve been having. Rainbows and pots of gold are kind of an important part of St Patrick’s Day festivities right? Well, that and four leaf clovers, leprechauns, and parades.
Each year my family makes our way to our city’s downtown to watch or take part in the parade. When my oldest daughter was younger we would stand along the side of the parade route wave at floats of children, Irish dance groups, and local mayoral candidates grabbing candy or flyers from them as they all walked by. Now Madeline is usually marching in the St Patrick’s Day parade with her school’s cheer team and that leaves my husband and I to hang out with my youngest along the route. While she is entertained with the usual floats, dancers, candy, and flyers, she also has a deep desire to do what her sister is doing. She’s not old enough for an official parade appearance but that doesn’t mean we can’t make her parade experience a little more festive. This year that means we’ll be making some parade noise from the sidelines with some rainbow ribbon shakers.
The rainbow ribbon shaker is a magical mix of rainbow ribbon wand and rhythm shaker. It’s not only a festive little St Patrick’s Day rainbow craft but it’s also a great addition to playtime, dance time, or parade time. After making these we’ve had some pretty fun rhythmic shaking and ribbon twirling dance parties in our living room.
Supplies Needed to Make a St. Patrick’s Day Rainbow Ribbon Shaker
- Toilet paper tubes
- Black and gold paint
- Paint brushes
- Ribbons in the each color of the rainbow cut to about 18 inches
- Stapler and Staples
- Beans, beads, rice, or other shaker filling
- Optional: Gold glitter glue, sparkly washi tape or ribbon, glitter stickers
How to Make a St. Patrick’s Day Rainbow Ribbon Shaker
Paint the about 2/3 of the toilet paper tube black and the remaining 1/3 gold. The tube will be the pot of gold your rainbow ribbons will lead to.
When the paint dries pinch the edges of the black end of the tube together. Next, staple along the edge, closing off one end of the tube and creating a pocket. Fill the tube about 1/2 full with your shaker filling. We used beans in one and rice in others and have enjoyed the difference in sounds.
Gather your ribbon streamers together. You can wrap tape around one end to hold them together if you’d like. Flatten the top together so it’s perpendicular to the bottom fold, ensuring the filling has room to move around inside the tube. Insert about a 1/2 inch of the ribbon into the open end of the shaker and staple the top edge together. You may need to add an extra staple or two to help secure the ribbons in place.
If you want, you can add glitter, sparkly washi tape or ribbon to your pot of gold to add some extra bling to your ribbon shaker.
When you’re finished let the shakers loose and have a blast shaking your pot of gold and twirling your rainbow ribbons around. You never know, maybe you’ll even lure a leprechaun your way.
I’ve been saving TP rolls for something (didn’t know what!), and this looks like a great craft!
I love that you have a toilet paper tube stockpile, Linda.
Love these! Just showed them to my 10 year old. She has her own collection of toilet paper tubes! 😉