paintonmyclothes: March 13, 2013

My apologies for what must seem like I dropped off the face of the earth. No excuses except for being out of town for a few days, working, planning a fundraiser, classes, and getting some painting done for said fundraiser. Oh yeah, and the daily rituals of cooking, cleaning, washing and the like. No excuses at all! ;)
I do want to show you what I came up with to decorate at work. They were so well liked, I taught everyone how to do them. I was just playing at work and came up with them, after decorating with the same kind of 'hearts' for Valentines Day. (but of course in red). If I saw them online somewhere, I must have subliminally remembered them, because I really was just playing with some paper when I first made them.

If you make these out of card stock they will stand up on edge on their own. If you use paper stock and make the small ones they will, unless its somewhere that gets a gust of air or bumped alot. Bigger ones made of regular paper are a little wimpier.
Let me show you how to do them so you can decorate for St. Pattys...
First, cut regular 8-1/2 x 11 paper in one inch strips. Lengthwise for the big ones, width wise for the smaller ones:

Fold a strip in exact half:

Separate the ends and curl them inside towards the other:

You might have to pull out the ends out to the side to staple them. Keep the ends lined up and put the staple straight with the squared off ends.

Make three or four, depending on if you want shamrocks or clovers. Put the points of the hearts together and staple them two and two like shown. Then its time to make the stem. Take a fifth strip and fold one end about 3/4 inch down from the other, like so:

Flip it over and do the same thing to the other side, so that it makes a box bottom to the strip.
Put the loose ends together and put them between two of the 'hearts' that make the clover petals.