Shamrock Barrette Tutorial

Each year, our town has a wonderful St. Patrick’s Day Parade. We love going and watching all of the people go by. It’s a well-packed event and we never miss it.

Being Irish, we naturally deck the kids out — from head to toe — in green, but living in the North East means that we often have to cover up their outfits in their “not so green” winter coats. Somehow, the kids don’t look quite as festive when they are bundled up.

So this year, I sat down and made some shamrock barrettes out of pipe cleaners for my daughter and niece. This way, even if their coats had to be zipped up, they could still show some Irish spirit. They happily wore their shamrock barrettes with pride…until it got so chilly that we made them put their winter hats back on!

SHAMROCK BARRETTE TUTORIAL

Materials (makes 1 barrette):

3 green pipe cleaners
1 bobby pin
Pencil or paintbrush

Directions:

Step 1: Gather your three pipe cleaners of equal size.

Step 2: Bend your pipe cleaner in half and make it into a letter P, with the tail sticking out the back.

Step 3: Bend the back tail around to make a figure 8.

Step 4: Bend the remaining tail back around to the middle to create the third petal.

Step 5: Wind your second pipe cleaner around two of the three petals to add dimension and stability.

Step 6: Wind your third pipe cleaner around the last petal and wrap a few twists around the middle where all three join. (This is where you will slide the bobby pin in.) Now twist the tail down and out the bottom for the stem.