Since I have been decorating my house for St. Patrick's Day
for the past few years (and adding a few new things each
year), I have probably an over-abundance of decorations
for that holiday. I'm going to show them all to you anyway
and you can just enjoy them, or pick and choose which ones
you might like to incorporate into your home next year.
Irish blessing really DO make you feel blessed as you
walk by and ready these lovely sentiments each day of March.
To see the Irish blessings up close, click on this blog post:
I searched on the internet for Irish sayings and picked my
favorite ones. They were composed with Irish-looking text
in the "design" area of Pic Monkey.
You could also use "Word" on your computer.
Then they were printed out on aged-looking paper.
in the "design" area of Pic Monkey.
You could also use "Word" on your computer.
Then they were printed out on aged-looking paper.
The green bottles (found at various craft stores, etc.)
have toppers made to look like soldered stoppers with
have toppers made to look like soldered stoppers with
metal-looking four-leaf clovers.
Instructions for making these
Instructions for making these
bottles are at "Easy Soldered Bottle Look".
Keep your eyes open for inexpensive Irish items (like the
ceramic Celtic cross above) or signs/sayings during the year
to add to your March decorations.
For St. Patrick's Day I am pretending that my little key
collection just may open some doors of Irish castles.
To make some of the larger keys have an Irish connection,
I painted foam shamrocks (from Hobby Lobby) to match
the keys and attached them with a dot of hot glue.
These shamrocks will be easy to pull off when St. Patrick's Day is over.
Some of these sweater-covered pillows on the living room
sofa have patterns woven in them that are similar to the
Adjacent to the sofa in the living room is another Irish
display area...the mantle and bookcases.
Here I used more of my green bottles (the color generally
associated with St. Patrick's Day) on the bookcases.
The potted artificial shamrocks came from Michael's this
year...only $6 each when using a coupon. They can be
used in future year's displays also.
The religious statue (don't know the story behind it) was
only $10 at Ross' (several years ago). He got pressed into
service and had a shamrock added to his hand (with a dot of
hot glue) to make him fit into the season.
Books are a great way to add interest and texture to a display.
They also can act as a "stand" to elevate items.
The center of the book page lollie was made from a paper cupcake liner.
The bottom of the liner was the shamrock and four-leaf clover. It was cut away.
The side of the liner was the stripes. It was pleated and glued into a circle shape.
Both were given a very watered down coat of brown paint to age them.
Then the two pieces were stacked and attached with double-sided tape.
These paper lollies got "Irish-ized" temporarily
by adding (from left to right) a paper cutout, a foam-painted
shamrock and an image (free download from internet that
was printed out in 5x7 format and cut to fit).
These green bottles just looked like the top shelf of a
bar when I originally put them up there..not a look
I was going for (even though they are alcohol bottles).
I tried to make them look like vintage seltzer bottles
(which is non-alcoholic) by shaping toppers made of
baked and painted polymer clay.
The fireplace is in between the bookcases.
It is topped by some paper wreaths I made a few years ago.
Most of the year they decorate the laundry/coffee & wine bar
area but they come out to play for Valentines and March.
I call this one a "pointy cone book page wreath".
Click on these highlighted words to get to the tutorial.
The other two "step-children" book page wreaths do not have
a tutorial. Really, they are so easy, they don't need any.
Well, I lie, here is tutorial for aging the book pages.
Cut some of the dried aged book pages into strips.
Wrap and secure them around straw wreaths
(to cover the straw).
For leaf wreath, cut out leaf shapes and hot glue
them on the paged-wrapped wreath form.
For the "rolled-message" wreath cut the aged
pages in half, roll them, wrap them with raffia,
hot glue them on the wreath.
Click on highlited text to learn how to make a book page lollie if you want to add one to the leaf wreath.
Add shamrock cut out from aged book page.
You can also make shamrock shapes to add to your
decorating items by using heart paper punch.
Punch out three book page hearts. Glue them together
at the points. That makes a shamrock shape.
Can I tell you how much I love these church-y looking
candle holders from Hobby Lobby? I got two of them
years ago but have never seen them since.
years ago but have never seen them since.
They got painted foam shamrocks added with hot glue.
Moving over to the double bookcase side of the fireplace...
These artificial shamrocks were purchased at Jo Ann's last year.
They did not have them again this year :{
If you want a downloadable printable for the "Lucky Charm" quote, click here.
More green glass, more shamrocks...can I ever have enough?
Ok now moving on from the living room to the
dining room...my most ambitious St. Patrick's Day
craft/decoration is St. Partrick himself!
Actually he is made from stained-glass paints on a
sheet of acrylic. He comes out for St. Patrick's Day
decor and stays out through Easter usually.
I "lost" the pictures I took (probably forgot to put the memory card in my camera)
of actually making him. I do have pics of how I transfered the image from the
computer to the acylic sheet if you want to see that "How To Enlarge An Image".
Another Irish blessing on aged-looking paper...
The dining room table holds a scale from "Magnolia
Market" that is great for different seasonal decorations.
Right now it is holding artificial shamrocks from
Michael's. It has a little sign from Jo Ann's wired on.
On either side of the scale are vintage images of shamrocks
that were downloaded from the internet, printed in 5x7 size
then cut out so only the original image shows.
Other St. Patrick's Day images that I downloaded this year
are in the painted hutch behind the dining room table.
Want to see how to make a cheap chandelier look like an Italian chandeiler on a shoestring?
Click on the above highlighted text.
I love the wavy glass in the hutch but it is hard to
photograph things behind the glass well.
We are friends...I am going to open the doors of the
hutch and let you see the behind the scene.
The postcard-sized images stand up by leaning or being taped to books, jars, etc.
These are images downloaded from the internet.
I don't have a color printer so I put them on a pin drive
and took them to a UPS store. They were able to print
and took them to a UPS store. They were able to print
them two to page in color for me, all for about $5.
I think that is a bargain!
The images were printed in 5x7 size on parchment colored
card stock. They were then cut out so only the original
imaged showed.
So! In a nutshell...my tips for decorating for
St. Patricks Day would be...
1. Put shamrocks out and in and on everything possible
2. Be on the lookout for green things that can be used.
3. Print out free St. Patricks Day images.
4. Find Irish blessing/wishes/prayers to print out.
Although I do use artificial shamrocks, I do have one pot
of REAL shamrocks. They are amazing. So pretty from
both sides AND they close up like little umbrellas at night!
Wishing you a blessed and happy St. Patrick's Day!
