Keep Calm and Decorate: St. Patty's Day

Sunday, March 16, 2014

St. Patrick's Day Mantel

Happy St. Patrick's Day eve friends! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. I enjoyed a great weekend with my family and friends. Weekends just go by too fast! In honor of St. Patrick's Day tomorrow I thought I would share with you my fireplace mantel.

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

St. Patrick's Day Banner

Wow, has it really been almost a month since my last post? This has been such a long winter my friends and I am so ready for spring. I really wanted to get my spring decorations out but it just felt wrong with the 5 ft. piles of snow sitting on the edge of my driveway. Seriously, winter I am so over you! I am sick of being stuck inside and I am ready to just spray paint something. My spray painting days are still a few months away so in the meantime I must stay inside and keep myself busy. I thought it would be fun to add a few decorations for St. Patrick's Day this year. I made this St. Patrick's Day banner is less than 30 minutes one afternoon for my fireplace mantel.

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Dollar Tree Shamrock

Now, that we have Valentine's day under our belts I have been itching to get my St. Patty's Day decor out. I found a cute shamrock at the Dollar Tree this past weekend. I didn't know what I was going to do with it when I bought it, but I was thinking spray paint or Mod Podge. Well, since it has been so cold out I can't spray paint anything so out came the Mod Podge. I thought it would be fun to do a little tutorial for you. This is a super easy and cheap way of decorating because I only used what I had on hand.

This is picture of the shamrock when it came straight out of the bag. It has a beautiful picture of Ireland (I assume). It's not a bad looking shamrock but I think it could use a little help!

The first thing I did was I cut off the green ribbon as well as the tags. Don't get too crazy with cutting of the ribbon because you are going to need that later (remember we are using what we already have). I then picked out some green polka dot paper that I had on hand from forever ago. I traced the shamrock onto the paper and create a template to cut.

I then glued my shamrock paper cut-out onto the Dollar Tree shamrock. It is probably best to use spray adhesive, used a roller tape to adhere the paper to the shamrock.

I then brushed the Modge Podge on top of the shamrock (I used a small foam brush, but any brush would work). I wanted to use Modge Podge to give it more of a sheen look. Did you know Modge Podge comes in different finishes? I prefer the matte finish.

I did have to go back and dab a little hot glue around the edges after the Mod Podge dried. That's why I think spray adhesive might be a little better to use in this project.

I wanted to create a banner across the shamrock that said "Lucky" for St. Patty's day. I had alphabet, rubber stamps that I had bought from Hobby Lobby a few years back. I am sure you can something like these at any craft store.

I found some burlap color scrapbook paper in my stash and decided to use that for the banner. I first stamped a spot on the paper and created a triangle around it. I used this as my template for the rest of the letters. I would just cut this one out and trace it for the rest of the letters and then stamp. Stamping on a full sheet of paper is easier then stamping on an itty bitty piece. You might have already known that, but just in case.