St Patrick's Day Banner

It's almost St. Patrick's day, the day to raise a glass, tuck into a meal of corned beef and celebrate!  

By the way, you don't have to be Irish to join in the fun......

To create a banner for your celebration you'll need the following supplies:

Joy Embroidered Letters

12" x 20" Piece of canvas fabric

3 Pieces of felt - Dark Green, Medium Green and Light Green

Sticky back black felt

Fabric glue

3/8" Gold ribbon

Gold Metal stickers 

Brass brad

Black marker

Scissors

Green jute

12" Dowel (or cardboard tube from a coat hangar)

12" Decorative ribbon

1. Cut canvas fabric to size.  Note: I use a canvas drop cloth from the hardware store. It is inexpensive and the perfect weight for decorative banners and garlands.

2. Use the patterns as guides to cut the shape of the hat from medium green felt, 3 light green shamrocks,  2 dark green shamrocks and a 7" x 1.75" rectangle of black felt.  Glue the black felt to the hat. 

3.  To create the shamrock for the hat, cut along the lines as indicated then place the small shamrock on top of the large one.  Poke a hole through the center hold together with the brad.

4. Create a buckle for the hat band with the gold ribbon. Cut two, 2" pieces and two 1.5" pieces. Glue in the shape of a rectangle at the center of the black hat band.  Iron the letters on the brim of the hat then glue the shamrock in place.  Glue the hat to the banner.

5.  Create additional shamrocks using the same patterns.  Cut the shapes, then cut all the way through the center on the cut lines to create 4 hearts.  Create the additional shamrocks by gluing 3 hearts together at the base. Glue to the banner then add a gold metal embellishment to the base of each one.  Draw stitch lines from the shamrock  with a black marker. 

6.  Create a border with 12" pieces of ribbon. A narrower decorative ribbon was glued on top of a wider 12" piece of ribbon then embellished with gold, nail head stickers.  Glue to the banner about 2" from the bottom.

7.  Fold 2" over at the top of the canvas then glue to create a casement for the dowel, or cardboard tube.  Tie the ends of the jute to each end of the dowel to create a hangar or, if using a cardboard tube, thread the jute through the center then tie the ends together at the top.

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back. 
May the sun shine warm upon your face; 
the rains fall soft upon your fields 
and until we meet again, 
may God hold you in the palm of His hand.

Traditional Gaelic blessing.

You can find Joy embroidered, iron-on letters at your local craft store. They are available in a variety of colors, sizes and fonts for all your home dec and crafting projects.