St. Patrick's Day Shamrocks: A Tutorial for Making Marbleized Clovers

Making marbleized four leaf clovers is a quick and easy art project for preschool, kindergarten, or elementary school students. This DIY craft is a perfect St. Patrick’s Day activity to pair with your classroom leprechaun activities as you celebrate the famous Irish holiday.

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Throughout recess, my friends and I searched. With our eyes glued to the ground, we’d hunt for an ever-elusive 4-leaf clover in the fields surrounding our playground. Back then, discovering a lucky 4 leaf clover was like winning the lottery. St. Patrick’s Day always brings back those memories for me. If I could bottle up that excitement and share it with my kids, I would.

With Saint Patrick’s Day quickly approaching, my oldest daughter and I spent the afternoon playing in fluffy, rainbow mounds of shaving cream. Talking a little bit at a time in between splattering drops of rainbow-colored water paint onto the crisp white pan of shaving cream. The colors swirled as the excitement grew.

We were making marbleized 4-leaf clover decorations to hang up around the house. Marbleizing paper has become one of our favorite quick art activities. It looks a lot harder than it actually is. Even though it can get a little messy, a quick rinse cleans it all up. It really is worth a try if you’ve never done it before. Here’s how.

You can make your own marbleized 4-leaf clovers.

First, you’ll need to gather your supplies: paper, shaving cream, two cookie trays, a ruler, a stick or fork, paper towels, and liquid watercolors or food coloring. (Liquid watercolors clean up easier than food coloring, but either will work.)

Next, set out the two cookie trays. Cover one with shaving cream and spread it out. Then, drop random drops of several colors of liquid watercolors on the shaving cream and swirl them. This is my favorite part! It’s kind of mesmerizing.

Next, lay your paper on the shaving cream and lightly rub it to make sure all the paper touches the shaving cream. Then, carefully lift up your paper and lay it on the second cookie tray. This step will reveal your final design. For me, it’s the most exciting part. Finally, use your ruler to gently scrap off the shaving cream. It doesn’t have to be perfect. You just need to get as much off as you can without ripping your paper.

After your paper is dry, you can cut it into whatever shapes you would like. For this project, we chose to make 4-leaf clovers by folding the paper in half twice (hot dog style and then hamburger style) and then into a triangle. We cut out a heart-like shape making sure not to cut all the way to the tip of the triangle. Once unfolded, it makes a 4-leaf clover shape.

With a quick rinse in the sink, everything was cleaned up. One look at my daughter’s face and I knew. Making our own lucky clovers had been just as exciting for her as finding them had been for me all those years ago.

Can’t get enough Saint Patrick’s Day fun?

Making marbleized clovers pairs perfectly with this March counting game. Check it out here if you’re looking for a fun way to practice 1:1 correspondence and counting skills.