St. Patrick’s Day Shamrock Banners

I enjoyed making the Valentine’s Day banners so much I created two new versions with shamrocks in honor of St. Patrick’s Day.

First up is a color-it-yourself version that’s great for little crafters. Turn them loose with colored pencils, markers, crayons and glitter and let their imaginations run wild!

You can download the coloring page template here. If you’re planning to decorate with colored pencils or crayons, you can just print these out on regular printer paper. If you want to use markers or glitter, print the templates on lightweight card stock to keep the banners from rippling or warping when they’re decorated.

I used my favorite twistable Crayola crayons to color my banners.

Cut out the banners and extra shamrock shapes and punch holes in the corners of each with a standard 1/4″ hole punch. To make sure the holes were in the same place on each banner, I flipped one shape over and marked a line about 3/8″ down from the top of the banner, then measured in 1/2″ from each top corner and marked two more lines. I punched holes in the first banner then used this as the template for the rest.

To line up the holes on the shamrocks, I cut an extra shape out of scrap paper, folded it in half and punched the outer edges of the leaves. I opened the shape back up, put it on top of my colored shamrocks and used it as a guide to punch holes.

Alternate threading the banners and shamrocks on a piece of 1/4″ ribbon. Hang the finished banner up and admire!

Next up is colored paper version – download the template here. I used alternating green and white cardstock-weight scrapbook paper for the banners and polka-dot cardstock for the shamrocks in between, but any sturdy colored paper will work. You can either print the templates directly onto the colored paper or, if your printer is wimpy like mine, print out one set of templates on regular printer paper, cut them out and trace around the shapes to create the shamrocks and banners on heavier paper.

Cut out all the shapes and attach shamrocks to each of the banners. To line up the shamrocks in the same location every time I printed out one of the coloring pages, cut out one banner, then cut it in half and cut out the main shamrock shape to create a placement guide. I lined up this guide along the edge of each banner then used double-sided tape to attach the shamrocks.

Cut out the banners and shamrocks and mark the locations of the holes using the same technique as outlined above for the coloring page version. Punch with a 1/4″ punch and thread banners and shamrocks onto 1/4″ ribbon, alternating shapes and colors.

Done!