St Patrick’s Day is right around the corner, so why not get into the spirit with these upcycled dioramas? I had so much fun with the winter dioramas I made last month and since I still had some lids leftover, I thought they would make perfect four-leaf clovers. This time I also used a couple of tofu trays that I painted blue to look like the sky – you could also use those blue produce trays and skip the painting step! I kept it simple and stuck with clovers and rainbows, but you could also craft other good luck symbols or even mini leprechauns if you’re feeling ambitious!

• Empty lids and trays
• Pipe cleaners
• Paint
• Paintbrushes
• Cotton balls
• Hot glue
• Green paper
• Gold trim
• Pony beads
• White glue (optional)

Step 1
Gather up your lids and trays and make sure they are clean and dry. If you already have green lids, that is perfect! I was only able to find one green lid (from a jar of peanut butter) so I used other colors as well.

Step 2
Paint the lids and trays whatever color you like! For the ones featuring clovers, I painted them green. For the two deeper dioramas (these were trays from tofu), I painted them blue to look like the sky. Set aside and let dry completely, doing a second coat for better coverage if needed.

Step 3
While those dry, gather up your small bottle lids and arrange them into groups of 4, forming a simple clover shape. Use a hot glue gun to secure them together, and then give a coat of green paint. Make sure to use a green that will contrast the green you used on the background lids/trays! Set aside to dry, and apply another coat of paint if needed. Once dry, bend a small green pipe cleaner to be the stem and hot glue to the back of the clover. Glue the entire thing into the darker green lid or tray.

Step 4
For the white and clear lids, I made little rainbows using pipe cleaners. Pick out the colors you want to use (you don’t have to go with traditional rainbow colors if you don’t want!) and bend each into a gentle arch. Trim them to fit inside the lid and arrange them in a rainbow. Use white or hot glue to secure them in place. Gently fluff up a cotton ball and glue it on one end of the rainbow. For the deeper tofu tray rainbow, I bent down the end of each pipe cleaner and then used hot glue to secure those to the sides of the tray, leaving space behind them for some depth.

Step 5
In the trays, you can also use green paper to make hills behind a four-leaf clover! Simply trace the tray onto the paper and cut out with a curved top as the hill, but leave excess on each side to fold over as flaps. Fold down a flap on each side of the paper you just cut and test to make sure it fits in the tray. Glue the two flaps into the sides. Make another one to go in front for even more depth! Then glue in additional details, like a rainbow and clouds in back and the four-leaf clover in front.

Step 6
You can even add some gold trim along the edges of the trays and lids for a pop of metallic that leprechauns are sure to love.

Happy crafting!