Happy St. Patrick's Day: and a Shamrock Window Craft

For days I've been trying to think of something to do with the clover we pressed in an old book last week.  My first thought was to use it to decorate pretty little glycerin soaps, but we never made it to the craft store to buy the glycerin.

Finally, yesterday I decided we would make shamrock sun catchers.  I'm happy we did; today we have cheery little shamrocks hanging on our front windows, plus the craft was easy and enjoyable (and cheaper than buying the soap).


What we Did
First I printed off a medium sized shamrock template onto card stock.  I cut it out and traced its outline with a pen onto the clear part of a piece of contact paper (before I'd peeled off the backing).

I peeled the backing off several such sheets and placed one in front of each girl, sticky side up.

The girls decorated their shamrocks with the pressed clover.  I told them to try to keep the clover inside of the lines, but actually, the finished product looked prettier with some of the leaves over the lines.

After each shamrock was covered with clover I placed another piece of contact paper on top, and cut out the shamrock along the lines.

I did end up using a little scotch tape to hold the contact paper together in a couple of spots.  (contact paper crafts that don't have a clean seal all around the outline of the shape will tend to do this).

Before we did this craft, I had no idea how many slightly differently shaped clover leaves there were in our backyard.  So pretty!

More Ideas
If you are interested in making shamrock window decor but don't have any pressed clover ready to go, you might try a glitter and green paper shamrock suncatcher or a diy window cling.