Making Paper Shamrocks
Hey there!
In case you hadn’t noticed, I enjoy a fun paper project. I like making banners or other things that you can make with paper strips. One of the things that I have found that’s fun to create are paper shamrocks!
If you are familiar with cutting strips of paper for projects then this should be just as easy for you. All you need are scissors (or a paper trimmer), 4 shades of green paper, your hot glue gun and your stapler.
When thinking about the order of your papers for your shamrock, keep the darkest green piece of paper for your stem. Then decide if you want an ombre effect or if you want to go random with your pages. I just went random.
My sheets of paper are 8½” X 11” pieces of paper so my first sheet of paper will be cut into 1” wide strips that are 11” long. You can get 8 strips from it (and a bonus ½” piece).
For the second piece of paper, you want to trim you paper to 8½” X 9”. Then you slice it into 1” wide strips that are 9” long. Again, you’ll get 8 strips (and a bonus ½” piece).
Now, slow it down a bit. We’re about to switch things up. The third sheet of paper will be trimmed to 7” X 11” long. Do you see what I did there? Instead of only getting 8 strips of paper (plus the bonus), you will get 11 strips of paper without any leftovers.
Why is this important? Well, each shamrock needs 6 strips of each color paper. If you are only making 1 shamrock, it doesn’t matter. But if you are making several, you’ll want to conserve paper. If you don’t care about conserving paper, don’t worry about it. Cut on sister!
So once you have your strips cut, line them up 3 small, 3 medium, 6 tall, 3 medium and 3 small for each shamrock. It makes the creating easier.
Then line up your strips in your hand and staple the end (the bottom where the strips line up).
Once the bottom is stapled, you have the tops that are varied in size. It sounds harder than it is but all you do is loop them down to make a three tiered heart.
Take those tiered hearts and staple them.
Do this three times total.
Remember we had a darkest shade of green that we saved? Well, that’s our shamrock stem. Cut that into a 5” X 2” strip, fold it in half to create a 5” X 1” stem (for strength) and bend it a little like an actual stem.
Get your hot glue gun ready. We’re going to take our time and hot glue three of the shamrocks to the stem that we created. The glue is hot so be careful!
When you are done you can leave it as it, cause it’s super cute, or you can add a glittery shamrock (or another type of sticker) in the center. You know I do extra cause I just do!
And now you have a shamrock! Make many and decorate your house or office with them. Make many and give them out to friends and family. Make one and sit back with a glass of wine and be proud of yourself.
You just guess which one I’m doing.
