St. Patrick's Day Paint Swatch Card

As some of you may know, we’ve been teaching an Arts & Crafts class here in Brooklyn since the beginning of 2013.  Aside from learning about a famous artist and doing a child-friendly project, the children create a handmade card at the end of each class.  Our second session just began this Wednesday.  Since the children and their parents loved making the cards so much we decided to share the “how-to’s” of all our cards this session with you. 

This week we made a shamrock card using paint swatches in honor of St. Patrick’s Day!

Materials:

Paint Swatches in Shades of Green
Card Stock & Envelope
Scissors
Glue Stick
Green Crayon
Stickers (optional, but always fun)

This card couldn’t be easier.  Start by drawing a dashed line around the border of the card with a green crayon.  Then simply cut 3 hearts and a stem out of the paint swatches.  Glue them down to form a shamrock as shown.  Voila!...You have a fun, modern card that is sure to put a smile on someone’s face.

A tip to cutting the perfect heart: Normally, to make a symmetric heart we would fold a piece of paper in half and then cut a teardrop shape.  Since the paint swatches are thicker, we didn’t want to see that fold once the heart was unfolded.  This time we used a word document to make a heart shape that was roughly 2 inches by 2 inches and printed on regular printer paper. We then cut that out and used it as a stencil/template to trace it onto the back of the paint swatch.  This way all of our hearts were the same size.  It’s also fun to position the heart so the name of the shade of green is shown!

In class, we are teaching the students how much fun making and mailing cards can be.  To help them understand, we drew an outline around where the stamp goes.  This makes it a lot easier for them to stick it in the correct spot.

After teaching one semester of Brooklyn Arts & Crafts (and having a two-year-old myself), I’ve learned stickers are always fun!! For this card we bought cute shamrock stickers for the kids to use to decorate the envelope. 

One of my favorite parts about this card is that the paint swatches have an appeal all on their own.  Even if your shamrock doesn’t get glued down exactly like the example or the border isn’t so much a border, it is still beautiful.  Here are two examples of cards Georgia made herself.

Luckily, the USPS doesn't care if the stamp is upside-down!!

Hope this inspires you to make your own card this St. Patrick’s Day!!  Have a great holiday!!