St. Patrick’s Day is coming up and I created neutral clover specimen décor to display on my dining room farmhouse style shelves. I usually never decorate much for St. Patrick’s Day but I am feeling guilty for not decorating at all for Valentine’s Day. I feel like the past six weeks have been completely overwhelming since all of our kids passed around strep throat and then a confirmed case of the flu. We went from one sick kids to two sick kids to four sick kids all in between a trip to Disney World. Luckily nobody seemed to be sick on our weekend at Disney!
This past weekend I found a few free minutes early in the morning to craft with supplies I have been picking up here and there during my lunch break. I find myself stopping into stores to get stuff for the house and enjoying the childless trips up and down every isle that I almost forget to go back to work. I have slowly started building my craft supply arsenal back up since I got rid of a lot of supplies the past few years. When I found the paper mache clovers I thought for a long time about what I could create until the clover specimen décor idea was born.
St. Patrick’s Day Clover Specimen Décor Tutorial
Supplies-
(I am linking to affiliate links for the products I used. This doesn’t cost you any extra but we do earn a small commission from any purchases made through the links to keep things up and running.)
- wood canvas panel
- 9 paper mache clovers (grabbed these at JoAnn Fabrics)
- paintbrush
- semi-gloss paint (I used a BEHR sample size in Cameo White – acrylic paint works too)
- wood stain
- sanding sponge
- old tshirt or cloth
- clear shipping tape
- gift card, debit card or something similiar
- hot glue gun
- gold paint
Instructions-
Step 1- Use an old tshirt or lint free cloth to spread the stain onto the wooden panel and then wipe the excess off. Allow the stain to dry to the touch but not completely.
Step 2 – Paint two or three coats of paint over the stain. Only allow enough time between coats for the paint to dry to the touch (about 5 minutes). After the third coat of paint allow the paint to dry for 20-30 minutes at most. You want it to be dry to the touch.
Step 3 – Between coats of paint on the canvas panel paint one clover with gold paint.
Step 4 – Put strips of clear shipping tape over the dry to the touch paint and rub with a gift card or debit card only in the areas you want the paint to peel off. I stayed in the middle and rubbed in one direction for a uniform look. The harder you rub the more paint comes off. I suggest trying one strip to begin with so you can see the effect.
Step 5 – When you are done getting the chipped paint look you want use a sponge sander to give the corners, sides and edges a worn look. Also rub the sander sponge gently over the entire top.
**If you are using the chipped paint effect on a piece of furniture be sure to put a coat of polycrylic on it to protect the surface from scratches. This will also allow you to be able to clean the surface.
Step 6 – The final step is to use a hot glue gun to glue the clovers onto the canvas panel. You can use a pencil and ruler to make sure everything is perfectly aligned or eyeball it like I did.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day friends! If you liked this tutorial for clover specimen décor you might also like these ideas-
