A fun St. Patrick's Day activity for kids or adults, these hammered shamrock prints and clover hearts are a festive way to decorate cloth for all sorts of holiday projects.
hammer(A metal hammer works better than a rubber mallet.)
Instructions
Go on a nature hike and look for pretty clovers that you want to use for your hammered shamrock prints.
Decide where you want to make your print. The great thing about hammered leaf printing is that you can use it to decorate a variety of paper and cloth projects. Everything from cards and stationery to t-shirts and cotton cloths can be easily decorated.
Look for a solid, smooth surface over which you can place your fabric or paper. Use something that you don't mind staining or denting! I used a weathered pine board once, but found that the veining of the wood showed up. Using a smooth wooden cutting board worked much better.
Cover your work surface with the cloth or paper onto which you want to hammer your flower or leaves. With the clover leaves, a thin cotton fabric worked best for me. It absorbed the dye well and evenly, making the prettiest prints.
Place the clover leaves into position on the board and cover them with another layer of cloth or some paper towels. Covering them helps hold them in place and also absorbs some of the released pigment so that it doesn't bleed all over the place. While you can use a paper towel, using another layer of cloth has the advantage of stamping two cloth pieces at once. ;)
Lightly tap over the entire surface of the leaves. This helps hold them in place.
Once you've lightly hammered over the entire leaf, start hitting over the entire surface with a bit more force. If you are using a cloth backing, you should start to see the pigment from the leaves starting to seep through.
When you can see the full shape of the leaf through the cloth, you have probably done a good job of fully transering the pigment to the cloth. Open it up and admire your work! If the plant material has stuck to the fabric, you can either carefully peel it off right away or let it dry a little and then peel it off.
That's all there is to it! Admire your work!
Video
Notes
It takes a bit of experimentation to find out what types of paper or cloth are going to work best with different types of leaves or flowers, and I've found that when working with fabric, natural fibers like cotton tend to absorb and hold the dye from the plants better.Watercolor paper and other thick, recycled papers also make nice prints. Use full clovers to make shamrock prints. The individual leaves make pretty hearts.You can set the prints so they last longer by ironing over them with a hot iron.