Help your kids catch the Leprechaun this St Patrick's Day with a clever Leprechaun Trap

We haven’t made a Leprechaun trap in years, but as I was trying to think of a fun St Patrick’s Day project I could show you how to make, I thought a Leprechaun trap would be fun. This is a very simple design, and your kids will love to help you make it.

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Supplies Needed

Cardstock in the colors of your choice
Cricut Maker or other cutting machine
Tacky Glue or Spray Adhesive
Rolo candy
Free Leprechaun Trap Cut Files

Step 1. Download your files. Once the files are downloaded, unzip them and save them into a folder of your choice.

Step 2. In Design Space, start a new project and upload the SVG file for the Leprechaun Trap onto your canvas.

Step 3. The first thing you want to do is ungroup the whole file. Do this by clicking on the file to select the whole thing, and then clicking on the “ungroup” icon at the top of the layers panel.

Step 4. Before you can start cutting, you need to fix the score lines. Right now, they are set to cut. Select each score line and change the linetype to score. There are score lines for the top and bottom lids, the sides of the box, the black pot of gold, and the ladder pieces. The solid lines will turn to dashed lines when they are set to score.

Step 5. The other thing you need to do before cutting, is attach some layers so the score lines stay in place and don’t get moved around. If you don’t attache them all the score lines will go onto one mat, like this.

Attach the score layers to the image that they are on top of. Now click the “make it” button to see if everything is in place where it needs to be. If it’s not, hit “cancel” and make some changes.

Step 6. After you have everything cut out, it’s time to assemble. Start with the box. Fold on all the score lines. Then glue the two pieces together to make a box.

Step 7. Next, glue the top and bottom lids. The one with a hole in it is the top lid. Fold on all the score lines and glue the tabs to the side flaps to create the top and bottom lid.

Step 8. Glue the ladder pieces together. The thinner ladder goes onto the thicker ladder. Then fold on the score line at the top.

Step 9. Now, make the rainbow. For this, I took a box and put the rainbow pieces face down. Then I sprayed them with adhesive spray. I then used tweezers to pick it up and place it on the white rainbow shape. The tweezers help place them easier. There is a little white border around the colors, so pay attention to the placement as you are going along. After the colors are on, glue the clouds to the front.

Step 10. The last thing to assemble is the pot which will hold the gold. Fold the bottom tabs at the score line. Curl the black paper into a circle and glue the side tab to the inside edge of the pot. Then glue the circle to the bottom tabs. (This pot is bigger than the one in the file. I decided after making it, that it was too tall.)

Step 11. Now we get to assemble the Leprechaun Trap. Put the bottom lid on the box and glue on if you’d like. Glue the clovers to the sides of the box. The ladder is glued to the front of the top lid and the rainbow is glued to the back of the lid.

Before placing the lid on the box, put the trap door on. You do this by slipping the narrow end of the door into the little slot from underneath. In order to hold the trap door in place, you need to fill the pot of gold with gold candies (rolos) to weigh down the trap door. Then carefully place the lid on the box. When the Leprechaun comes and picks up the pot of gold, the trap door with fall in, along with the Leprechaun.

Now you are ready to try and catch a Leprechaun! I’ve never been able to, but I think I can outsmart him this year.

What do you put in a Leprechaun Trap?

Leprechaun’s are attracted to gold, so naturally, something like rolos or gold chocolate coins would be a good luring item. Also, to go along with making a Leprechaun Trap, you might want to grab “How to catch a Leprechaun” to read with your kids. It’s a fun read about trying to catch a Leprechaun and how they always get away.