Paper shamrock wreath how-to

3/02/2010 08:00:00 AM Ashley 3 Comments

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With my mom's birthday being on St. Patrick's Day there was a lot of decorating done. My mom decorated for every season and every holiday. There was a wreath on the door and various amounts of accoutrements scattered around the house in coordinating holiday colors. Of course with green being my mom's favorite color, St. Patrick's Day was easy and fun for her to decorate for. It didn't hurt that my mom was amazing at all things crafts. In fact because of her I know my way around a hot glue gun far better than most. She's the one that sparked the crafting bug in me. From a young age I remember sitting next to her helping her paint and glue things. Sadly my crafting spirit dwindled after my mom passed away, but I recently rediscovered it and have been finding inspiration everywhere. My mom is still my biggest inspiration. I find now that when I craft that it helps me remember her and that means so much to me. Though it doesn't hurt when something turns out well.

Luckily this idea turned out very well (at least I think it did). So now I will share with you yet another way to spruce up your living space with some green for this festive holiday!

I'm still in the process of making an all green fleece rosette wreath, but cutting circles was killing my hands. Instead I decided to kill my hands in another way. I stamped out a few hundred shamrocks to make my newest creation. I have a lot of craft punches and after some rummaging I found my lucky 4-leaf clover and went to work.

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This is about a half day project, with the longest parts being the punching the paper and the pinning of the clovers onto the foam wreath. This is a great project for all of you scrapbookers out there, because you probably already have a lot of green paper and maybe even a paper punch or twenty.

Here's what you'll need:

  • Foam wreath form in your choice of size (found at any hobby store)
  • Green felt or fleece
  • Shamrock/clover craft punch(mine is from Martha Stewart's line from Michael's)
  • Straight pins (I'd estimate you'll need 200+)
  • Green scrapbooking paper (I used 9 different colors, you can use more or less)
  • Ribbon (to hang wreath)
  • A thimble or something to help push pins into wreath


Okay lets get started!

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Gather your paper and start punching away. I used nine different papers in greens that were similar in color (I used a lot of papers with patterns, texture and shine). I over punched for this project, because I know I can use the leftover shamrocks for other projects. If I had to guess I would say I used 200+ for a 10 inch wreath (I'm probably totally off on this estimate). Don't worry your hand will promptly start cramping during this part.

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When you're all done you'll have pretty piles, which now means it's time to move onto cutting strips of your fabric. I love shopping the remnants section at the fabric store, especially if you're using it for crafts and not for sewing something. You can usually find great deals as they tend to take a discount off of the scraps.

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Cut strips down the length (longest part) of the fabric. Mine were about 1-1 1/2 inches wide. Don't worry it doesn't need to be pretty as most of the fabric will be hidden.

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Pin the end of the fabric to what will now be the back of the wreath.

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Start wrapping the wreath form with the fabric. I intermittently tacked down the fabric with a pin to help keep the fabric from slipping around. I ended up needing two strips of fabric to cover the whole form.

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When you're done with all of the wrapping you will now have a wreath that looks like this. If you used fleece you can now pet your covered wreath for a few minutes. Or you can ignore that part.

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Now you can start placing your shamrocks! To start my placement I would use one pin for every 2-3 shamrocks (which you can see in the lower middle of the picture) and pin it down in a random spot. This allowed me to use less pins and cover more space in less time. After you you get a good base down you can start filling in spaces. Keep in mind that you don't have to cover the back because it will never be seen. Just cover the spots that will be visible.

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Once you're done you can add the ribbon to the back (if you're not going to hang it you can skip this step). Cut the ribbon long enough to make a loop that will fit on whatever you will hang the wreath from and pin it to the back. Here you can see where I stopped pinning the shamrocks so that they didn't cover the back.


You're all done!



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Taken with the flash so you could see all of the different papers I used.

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This is a relatively easy project minus the cutting of paper and pinning (lots of hand cramps). You could easily use other craft punch shapes for other holidays and seasons. It's also a great way to use up paper that may be neglected or scraps of something too small for other things. Also, with it only talking less than a day to make, it's a quick way to spruce up your house.

I hope to be able to bring you many more craft punch ideas in the near future. Until then I hope you are able to have fun with this idea! Let me know if you try this out, I'd love to know!

I'm going to go hang this near the front of the house so I can see it when I come and go. It's a happy little reminder of a wonderful holiday and birthday and I never have to water it!

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