Erin Fox
St Patrick’s Day is nearly here and it will soon be time to pin fresh shamrocks to our coats. Legend has it that St Patrick used the shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity to the people of Ireland. Since then it has become a much loved and recognised symbol of our culture.
This paper strip shamrock is fun and easy to make and serves as a great mascot to wave at the annual St Patrick’s Day parade.
Switch around the colours and make each leaf in green, white and orange, to reflect the colours of the Ireland’s flag.
For the shamrocks you will need sheets of paper in different shades of green, a stapler, wooden skewer, strong glue, scissors, pencil and a ruler.
Cut even strips of the paper, each one inch wide and 18 cm long. You will need 18 strips of paper in total; six in dark green, six in moss green and six in spring green. Trim four centimetres off all of the spring green strips and two centimetres off all the moss green strips.
Divide the strips into groups of three of two long, two medium and two short strips.
Place a short strip down on the work surface. Place a medium strip on top of the short strip, followed by a long strip. Next lay the other long strip down, followed by the other medium strip and finally the last short strip. Staple them all together at the bottom. The outer strips should be the shortest ones.
Fold the outer strips into the centre and staple in place. This should now resemble a heart. Next fold the middle strips into the centre followed by the inner long strips. Staple each time you fold a new layer in. At this stage the centre of the shamrock leaf will be getting thicker so dab a little glue as well as using a stapler to secure it in place. Repeat with the remaining strips so you now have three leaves. With the strong glue, stick each leaf together from the centre to create the shamrock. Leave the glue to dry for a few hours.
Wrap a wooden skewer in any leftover green paper and then glue this to the bottom of the shamrock. Leave the glue to dry for a few hours or overnight.