Two Quick St. Patrick’s Ideas

For me, St. Patrick’s Day means two things: Shamrock Shakes and spring is just around the corner. I’m not one to normally do a St. Patty’s craft, but it’s been a long winter and I’m eager to welcome some fresh greens into my life! Here are two quick little shamrock projects using my current favourite media: washi tape. With a little luck we’ll be in sandals soon enough.

By: Tracy

First up, I added a touch of spring to my home with this little trinket box. Great for stashing little things (like a washi collection?), it can also be reused: you can pick off the tape and change throughout the year!

To make the geometric shamrock, I used 5 patterns of washi tape, a utility knife, a clear ruler and a self-healing mat (be sure it’s perfectly clean first). You can use a pencil to help with your lines and you’ll need something to put your tape on; you can find similar wooden boxes at most dollar stores or, of course, your local craft shop. This would also be great applied to some cardstock and framed or given as a sweet card to welcome spring.

Apply a few strips of tape a couple inches long to your cutting board. Trim one end to straighten it out.

Measure your tape to see its actual width, then placing your ruler at the cut edge first, cut across to create a square. Move the ruler to the cut and square off another piece until you reach the end. Take your ruler and, laying it at a 45 degree angle, cut equal triangles from every square. Repeat with all the tape strips. You will end up with little triangles like these.

Cut an additional piece about 2″ long. Square off both ends, then, laying your ruler at about a 45 degree angle, create a point on one end. This will be the “stem”.

Determine the placement of the shamrock on your box or surface: I made mine about halfway on the box to start and worked out from there. You can use the knife as shown to precisely place the triangles on your surface. I did it randomly and slowly, but you can draw a few faint lines with a pencil to help guide, spacing them the same width as your tape apart. Don’t forget, you can easily reposition the tape (or cut new pieces!).

Once you have the shape nearly done, add the stem. Carefully lift the stem piece up using the edge of your knife and apply to the surface.  Once you have it in place, add an additional row of triangles.

I made mine to fit this little box, but if you have a bigger surface, you could make it more like this amazing wall art. And, if you want to keep your good luck icon permanently, you can finish with a matte decoupage glue.  Otherwise, the tape can be removed after and your box decorated again (Easter egg shape, anyone?).

I plan on wearing a bit o’green so I also made this quick little shamrock.  Quick and really simple to make, you could easily get a little one to help make their own and practice their cutting skills. To make a shamrock, I used some toothpicks, green painter’s tape and some green washi.

To make this, I folded a piece of painter’s tape about 5″ in half, entering a toothpick in it.  I then layered a couple strips of tape on, drew a shamrock on the back in pencil, and then cut around the edges.  It was so simple you could easily make a whole meadow of them to tuck into Irish Cream cupcakes or even slices of fresh-cut kiwi. Happy Spring!