DIY St. Patrick's Day Hair Ribbon Accessory

Today I'm sharing a super simple project for St. Patrick's Day:  DIY Hair Ribbon Band and a recently learned lesson about letting go when life throws your plans out of the window.

I always LOVE the idea holiday themed shirts and outfits for kids, but after so many years as a mom I've realized it's a bit like throwing money out the window.  Holiday clothes rarely fit for more than one year and the seasons for them are so short, you get maybe a couple weeks of wear (if you're on top of the laundry and the kids don't fight you about wearing it a lot) and then boom! It's over and time to pack it up.  

This year especially, with St. Patrick's Day and Easter being less than 2 weeks apart, it feels extra insane.  It's also pricey when you have several kids (I'll soon have 4!).  A hat or hair accessory, however, will last for years, doesn't get outgrown and potentially works for multiple kids over time.  It's also cheaper.   WIN! 

Adding to that, I'm in the final weeks of my 4th pregnancy and there doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day to get to everything I feel needs attention.  Being busier than ever and more worn out than ever is not the ideal combination.  When just going up the stairs is exhausting, you've gotta adjust the priorities.  Lots has been put on hold and I feel really unproductive. 

Yet, despite lofty goals, it's got to be about the easy right now.  I've been trying to do a few simple projects just to give myself some moments of craft enjoyment (and being off my feet), but nothing that stresses me out, takes loads of time to do or takes away from daily needs.

This hair accessory is a way to still have some holiday flair, but only takes a little time to put together.

Materials:
- Assorted ribbons
- St. Patrick's Day Buttons & Charms (these are from my shop HERE) 
- Hair elastic
- Lighter, hot glue gun, scissors, ruler

This set of buttons & charms from my shop made this project really simple. I still had a bunch left to make a second one or to use to embellish something for my guys:

I scrounged my stash for various green and gold trimmed ribbons and cut several to be around 11 inches.  They didn't need to be exact since staggering them looks better:

I ran the cut edges under a lighter to heat seal them to prevent fraying.  I used my open shamrock charms with my thinnest ribbon and looped the ends around them and then put a dab of hot glue to hold them:

To keep the shamrock buttons facing up (instead of turning sideways) I pulled the ribbon upward and put a little more glue between the loop and the button back to keep it straight.

I layered them together and pinch in the center.  To attach them to the hair band, I wrapped a one inch piece of the widest ribbon around the center of the ribbon pile and the hair elastic, rolling it up and leaving a little tail:

I trimmed down the tail and heat sealed it and dabbed a line of glue before I rolled it closed:

Then I glued on my big Happy Saint Patrick's Day button over the seam and the hair band was good to go:

I'm grateful for simple wins like this right now.  I'd anticipated having all our baby stuff ready to go a month ago so I could focus on spending time with the kids and getting to a few long neglected craft projects before life really gets crazy, but my daughter's accident early in the year and other issues threw my whole plan out of whack.  Seeing this project done makes me feel a little more on top of things and at least we've got a hint of the holiday in the house!