Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Here’s how to make a piece of décor to mark the occasion without spending too much time making it. Create a banner or wall hanging using intricate die cut hearts and borders in metallic cardstock to achieve a subtle, yet elegant effect. I’ve used the Vines of Passion heart die and Moroccan Accents border from Spellbinders, but you can use similar products from other brands. Note that this design uses the traditional shamrock with three leaves. You can easily adapt this to feature a four-leaf clover for good luck; simply add another heart and rearrange the leaves accordingly.

Variation: If you don’t have a die cut machine, draw and cut out the heart shapes and stem from metallic paper, then add flourishes with glitter glue or metallic marker. Use the border from a rectangular paper doily for the trimmings.

You will need:


* Gold or yellow metallic cardstock, 8-1/2 by 11 inches

* Gold or yellow metallic paper, 8-1/2 by 11 inches

* Green metallic paper, 8-1/2 by 11 inches

* Gold ribbon, around 18 inches

* Glue, preferably with a fine-tipped applicator

* Heart-shaped cutting die template

* Lace border cutting die template

* Compatible die cut machine

* Pencil

* Scissors

* Hole punch

Die cut three hearts from green metallic paper. On another piece of green metallic paper, draw a stem, adding some simple curves inside it, if you wish, to match the hearts. Cut out the stem including the spaces around the curves. Arrange the stem and the three hearts into a shamrock on the gold cardstock, and then glue them down when you’re satisfied with their placement.

Die cut two borders from the yellow metallic (or gold) paper. Glue one to the top of the banner, and the other at the bottom, so that it hangs over the edge. You may have to trim the border if it goes way beyond the edge of the banner.

Punch a hole at each of the topmost corners of the banner. Cut some gold ribbon around 18 inches in length, thread each end through a hole, and secure in place with two overhand knots. Trim any excess ribbon.

Your banner is done at this point, but if you want, you could embellish it even further. You may want to add text like “Happy St. Patrick’s Day!” or even just “Lucky”. Use die cut or punched letters, rubber stamps, stickers, computer printed text, or your own writing. Have fun, and lots of good luck to you!