What’s a holiday without a quick trip to New York to see the fine folks over at the Today Show? This time it’s all about St. Patrick’s Day and a handful of ways to go green this weekend. And not just “green” as in the color, but also in an eco-way as we’ve figured out how to repurpose or upcycle many of the goods you already have into projects perfect for St. Pat’s.
You may recognize some of these ideas from recent tutorials on Brit + Co, but here’s a quick a recap on how to create each of the items on this morning’s show. And, as always, we promise they’re super simple and take 30 minutes or less — yep, even for the DIY amateur!
What to Wear: No one wants to get pinched on Sunday! The key to fashionably rock St. Patty’s Day is to wear green without totally overdoing it. Luckily, emerald is the Pantone color of the year, so you are already one step ahead of the game. Here are a few other creative ways to add a simple touch of green to your wardrobe.
1. Button Earrings: Button earrings are so easy to make and are great for girls and women of all ages. You can even make them with your kids! This one is so easy that it’s almost addictive – we especially love the retro vibe of each pair of earrings. Don and Betty Draper would approve.
2. DIY Headbands: One of our favorite style hacks, all you have to do is grab a foot of green ribbon (be sure to measure around your head), hand stitch a hair elastic to the ends, and you’re good to go. We’ve seen these things sell for up to $15 in stores, but why buy when you can DIY?
3. Gold Toe Flats: Planning on a Sunday pub crawl? You’ll probably want some comfortable, festive, and trendy shoes. How does one create such a shoe trifecta? Easy! Take a pair of green ballet flats, cover with a clear bag and painter’s tape, and spray paint the toes gold for an extra chic color blocked look.
What to Serve: We know that St. Patty’s Day is all about beer, but we couldn’t resist cooking up a few fun sweets as well.
4. Shamrock Cupcakes: Cupcake hack alert! The cake is a simple white box cake dyed green with food coloring. The hack is how we made them look like shamrocks (and yes, we admit to finding this one on Pinterest but had to re-do it in a Brit + Co. way because it’s brilliant)! To create the clover, put your cupcake liners in a muffin pan and place three marbles around the edges of the cup for the shamrock shape. Then, pour your batter in and bake! For stems, we used green Sour Punch straws. So cute!
5. Ombre Pretzels: That’s right. We’re bringing the style trend of ombre to… pretzels! You didn’t doubt we could make pretzels even more awesome, did you? To create the ombre frosting effect, we dipped our pretzels in white candy melts, then pastel green melts, and then topped with sparkly green sprinkles. You can serve ’em up in threes to create a fun shamrock effect. The salty and sweet combo will definitely get your guests’ tastebuds attention ;)
How to Decorate: If you’re the one throwing the party this Sunday, you’ve gotta get your decor in order! Our advice is to focus on beautiful serving trays and tasty beverages.
6. Green Chevron Tray: There’s nothing like personalizing a basic piece of kitchenware to feel like the ultimate hacker hostess. To create the tray you see above (and in the video), create a chevron pattern using painter’s tape and spray paint green. Remove your tape, and you’re all set. Easy peasy.
7. Green Bottle Vases with Green Flowers: Been saving those pretty green wine, beer, Pellegrino, and Jager bottles for a rainy day? This is a great project for all of you bottle hoarders. Using the same technique as above, you can easily turn them into beautiful vases with painter’s tape and spray paint. Look at you, you little mean green decorating machine! (Sorry that was cheezeballs, I couldn’t resist.)
