Lucky Necklaces

A couple nights ago as I was tucking Liam in bed, he had a few requests for the next day (and I’m not making this up). He suggested we play with play dough and then make lucky St. Patrick’s Day presents for his school friends. Liam NEVER requests to craft, so I stayed up late thinking about what we could do that would exceed his expectations (in hopes of him requesting more craft time with Mom in the future). Also, I needed to come up with something that didn’t require a trip to the store…. This is what I came up with: homemade salt-dough shamrock necklaces.

Necklace New

It’s essentially like play dough, and each “lucky” necklace will be given to a friend. Success! Plus, making the dough entertained my boys all morning…

Shamrocknecklace08

…15 minutes later, they’re going strong…

Shamrocknecklace09

…and 30 minutes later, they were still going strong…

Shamrocknecklace05

These are SO easy! And cheap! We had every supply on hand—even for the packaging. You probably have all the supplies in your pantry, too, so let’s get started! First, the shamrocks:

Ingredients
:: 2 cups all-purpose white flour
:: 1 cup salt
:: 1 cup warmish water

Directions
:: In large bowl combine the flour and salt.
:: Add about half the water and mix until absorbed. Add the remaining water and mix until a ball forms.
:: On a lightly floured surface, knead the dough until it is smooth and workable. For us, it was about 8-10 minutes. (When half the dough was used, I added several drops of green food coloring and kneaded the remaining dough again until the color was spread throughout.)
:: Roll dough to 1/4″- 1/2” thickness. Punch out shapes using cookie cutters.
:: Lay cut shapes on parchment-lined baking sheet.
:: Using a straw, make a hole in the top of each shape.
:: Bake at 300 for 50-70 minutes until dough is completely dry.
:: Once baked and cooled, you can paint, varnish or keep them natural.

We opted to keep the green shamrocks natural, as Liam didn’t want to paint. (Tear!)

Shamrocknecklace01

One little note… Even successful Supermom Moments can get derailed by kryptonite kids. Harrison dumped a few extra cups of flour on the table when I turned away.

Shamrocknecklace04

Shamrocknecklace03

He spent the remainder of our craft time playing with the flour. He LOVED it! Needless to explain, several days later I’m still feeling flour on the tile floor. But we sure had fun making the mess!

Onto the packaging:

Packaging New

Supplies
:: Green ribbon (2′-3′ per necklace)
:: Lucky You template, printed
:: Paper cutter or scissors
:: Small baggies (I used clear 3”x4” Wilton treat bags yet these would be great, too.)
:: Stapler

Instructions
:: String each shape onto green ribbon, and knot ribbon to make a necklace.
:: Cut Lucky You tags and fold in half.
:: Carefully stuff shamrock necklace into bag.
:: Staple tag onto the top of stuffed bag.

Since next week is Spring Break, we’ll be passing these out early!

Aimée

Contributor at Paging Supermom
Aimée was a co-founder of Paging Supermom. Although she dreams in pink, she wouldn’t trade her two energetic boys for anything. Between using The Force on surrounding battle droids and flying to infinity and beyond, Aimée enjoys squeezing in some personal creative time. With a background in advertising, marketing and design, she is proud to stay home raising her boys.

WANT A FESTIVE HOME, WITHOUT HAULING OR STORING BINS OF HOLIDAY DECOR?

You need The Holiday Spot system! It's my secret weapon for a stylishly decorated home, all year through. Spend more time enjoying the holidays with your family and less time stressing!

TELL ME MORE!

8 thoughts on “Lucky Necklaces”

  1. We made these for all of the teachers last year. Except we used a rainbow ribbon instead. They were such a big hit!!

    here’s a pic- aplacecalledjoy.blogspot.com/2010/03/lucky-charms.html

    Reply
    • Those are so cute! I wish I had seen those a few days ago when I was laying in bed trying to think of what Liam could make. Thank you for sharing!

      Reply
  2. These are awesome!! :D I am totally going to rock these for the family on St. Patty’s this year. When I made mine, I left them in for too long on the first batch so they puffed up super huge and burned on the back side, buahaha. Live and learn.

    Reply
  3. what would you recommend to use if I wanted to write a child’s name on the finished charm? I’m thinking this could be a good party favor/name necklace.

    Reply
  4. Hi I just came across this recipe I’m thinking about making homemade medals for a school run-a-thon this way seems less expensive than buying them how many does this recipe make of Shamorocks? I would have to make about 700 maybe I’m being to overachieving ;)

    Reply

Leave a Comment