Welcome St. Patrick's Day

by DesertRose

4 Materials

1 Hour

Easy

St. Patrick's story has intrigued me for many years. He lived around 400 AD, and the true story is seldom told. To make a long story short, he was kidnapped at 16 years of age off his family farm and kept as a slave for six years. His family was slaughtered by the same ones who stole him. They took over the family farm.

When Patrick escaped from captivity and made it home to Scotland, he learned the sad truth. Rather than be bitter, he returned to his captors and took the Gospel to them. His story is one of compassion and forgiveness, even for those who wronged him. For more reading go to: : http://christiananswers.net/q-eden/patrick.html . Because his story inspires me, I love to decorate for St. Pat's Day including a new welcome sign on the front door.

To make a wooden decoration with a St. Patrick theme, I collected stencils off the internet, a color book copy of a "leprechaun" hat, a four leaf clover, twine, green plaid material, wooden disks from a tree, and markers.

I cut out my patterns to trace them on the slices of a large tree branch.

The three inch disks needed a small hole drilled in them about the size of the twine. I used one disk per letter in WELCOME.

I alternated with a hat or four leaf clover on each disk then traced the letter. I have to admit, the hardest part was getting the twine through the small hole. I did not think to use an embroidery needle until I was about done. I would have saved myself some time. A seam ripper came in handy.

The last step was to add the plaid material at the top. I cut it about 8 inches long by 2 inches wide. A loop worked at the end of the twine to hang the sign on a hook. This was an easy project with materials I had on hand.

Regardless of how we see the history of St. Patrick's Day, this welcome sign reminds me about the generous life of a good man long ago. His life still inspires people today. This would be a great family project to make and read the story together from the website listed above.