But the "heart" theme is still stuck in my head and probably will be for a bit, so I stepped into St. Patrick's day crafting while not quite letting go of Valentine's day. No wonder I can never remember what day it is!Have you seen all the uber cool toilet paper roll wall art rolling around blog land lately? Some of it is simply breathtaking! Recycled, free, easy, gorgeous -- what more could you ask for in a craft? Okay, perhaps this one won't quite make the category of breathtaking or gorgeous, but I've still got the others covered. So grab your supplies and follow along.
Your supply list -- one paper tube, scissors, and glue. (Now THAT'S a short supply list!)Begin by lightly flattening your paper roll and cutting into 1/2" sections. You'll need 4 or 5 strips for each shamrock, depending on whether you want 3 or 4 leaves.
Form the leaves of the shamrock by inverting the fold on one side of the roll strip.
Tightly pinch the reversed fold.
If you have a particularly stubborn roll like mine, you can help shape the heart by rolling the tube on a pencil. Only do this at the section that will form the top of the heart.
Then take the last strip and flatten it to form the stem. You should now have 3 or 4 "hearts" and one stem.
Begin gluing the bottom points of the hearts together.
For the stem, glue one end of the strip to a heart (lined up to the bottom point) before gluing the heart onto the others.
Four hearts and one stem and you have a four-leaf clover!
If you'd like your shamrock to stand up, form another heart and glue it to the back.
Experiment with different angles to see which you prefer.
When finished, I applied a quick layer of gold spray paint to mine. The rough texture of the paper roll makes the tube look almost as if it's aged metal. Love it!
Prefer a more traditional shamrock? Just use 3 heart leaves instead of 4, and adjust the stem positioning a bit by gluing the tip of the stem independently.Give it a try! You'll be thrilled with how quick and easy they are.Check out the green ones done by Kim at Life of a Modern Mom.
I have a series of super quick and easy St. Pat's day tutorials coming up over the next couple of days, so be sure to check back! If not already, you might want to set up as a follower.
And be sure to check out the endless list of inspirational ideas at my home page childmade.com.
I'll be linking to some of the fabulous link parties listed on the right sidebar ... but really, that's a LOT of parties! I probably won't get to them all, but you should stop in and visit a few yourself. While you're at it, stop by my home page and add a few links of your own to my perpetual link party!
