potted paper shamrock

I’m sorry.  I had to do it.  I gave the Irish shamrock a tropical twist.  Blame the artificial potted orchid sitting conspicuously in my stairway for planting the idea in my head.

I hesitated on this craft all week, but finally dared this afternoon.  I’m happy I did.  I think the end result is a successful variation on St. Patrick’s Day décor, for those not looking for the obvious.

From across the room, there’s no telling about the holiday.  But the paper shamrocks are a charming surprise up close.

You will need: bowl or pot with Styrofoam block, two dried rose stems and two dried filler flower stems (lucky I only lazily considered disposing of my dried up Valentine’s Day bouquet from O.T. without actually doing so), two shades of green cardstock, scissors, tape, hot glue gun, and glue sticks.

1. Using tape, attach a dried filler flower stem close to the top of a dried rose stem to create a curved (almost horizontal) stem extension .  Most filler flowers have skinny, curved stems and make for a good stem extension.

2. Cut cardstock shamrocks in various sizes.  Make two shamrocks per flower: one large (outer) and one small (inner), some with stems, some without.  I noticed that orchids have the gradation starting from a darker center to a lighter edge, so I made the inner shamrock darker than the outer.

3. Glue together the shamrocks.  I placed a rhinestone in the center of each.  It’s gives a nice dimension, but it’s not necessary.

4. Glue the shamrocks on the stems.

5. Carefully insert the stems in the Styrofoam block.

6. Fill the bowl or pot with gold coins.  I thought the coins would give enough character, but I felt it was still lacking, so I finished it off with a rainbow ribbon.

Let this fun potted paper shamrock liven your desk or windowsill or add more green to your St. Patrick’s Day party spread.