Saint Patrick's Day Free Printables and Horseshoe DIY Tutorial

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We LOVE celebrating St, Patrick's Day at our house! My husband's family has a lot of Irish in it that makes it even more fun, but...I seem to find myself without as many decorations to put up this time of year. So...I decided to make some printable word art and share it as a free printable! This way, you don't have to spend any money or even get dressed or leave your house! lol Best way to decorate, right? haha

The first one I started designing was a fun subway art. I LOVE the way it came out! I don't know what it is about Subway art, but I love it! So fun and cheery. Festive and simple.

If you would like to download this free printable, you can find it here. (For personal use only.)

I found these 8x8 little shadow boxes on sale right after Christmas and have been dying to find something to do with them. Now that I started, I'm afraid that this could get addictive. Ha! What I love about printables and frames though, is that you can change out the printable and keep the same frame for holidays throughout the whole year! Just create a file in your house somewhere to keep the printables and trade them in and out as the holidays come and go. Perfect! (and inexpensive too!)

The next printable I made was mainly green, but more colorful than the subway art too. It is a bit bolder, but stays simple too with the only words being "Lucky Us".

If you would like to download this free printable, you can find it here. (For personal use only.)

I wanted to add some more fun to the shadow box with this one and knew immediately what I wanted...a horseshoe! BUT...I didn't have one. And didn't have a clue where to get one...nevermind that little thing about having to get dressed, get the kids dressed, leave the house, drive somewhere, spend money....nope. Wasn't doing that today. haha

So I made one myself! Yep! I made a DIY horseshoe. Ha! AND I made a little tutorial for you to be able to make one too! They really are so simple and easy and then I get this little happy grin when I love the way it comes out when I am done with a project. So much better than shopping (for me at least). ;)

So, here you go!

DIY Paper Horseshoe Tutorial

The first thing I did was to find a horseshoe shape I liked. I used my Silhouette to cut mine out, but if you don't have one, you can cut them out yourself. It just takes longer. 

I cut 3 pages of horseshoes out. Each page had 6 horseshoes I fit onto the page, so I ended up with 18 paper (cardstock) horseshoes.

Then, I just used a good adhesive (that dries fairly quickly) and glued each one on top of the next. You need to line them up as best you can too. My daughter wanted to help with this part.

Mine ended up being about a quarter inch thick at this point.

After they were all glued together, I wanted to make the edges black as well, so I painted a bit of black acrylic paint to the edges. I let it dry for a bit.

Now...you CAN stop here. It looks pretty cool still.

BUT...I wanted to make it look a bit more realistic and stronger, so I used some Crystal Effects to layer all over the front and sides of the horseshoe as well. This took a few hours to completely dry, but I love the outcome. It makes it stronger and even look a bit more realistic. 

And there you have it. TA-DA! (as my 3 year old would say!) 

So fun!

This tutorial really will work for about any shape you want to make. I have done it for buttons when papercrafting before and love it on cards I make, like the one below. (Yep, EVERYTHING in this pic is from paper! (except the little tiny beads and pearl)

So, no excuses for not decorating for St. Patrick's Day. Just print a couple word art sheets out and throw them in a frame and you're ready to wear green!