Welcome to today’s video. It has been quite some time since we did a video tutorial together. Since St. Patrick’s Day is right around the corner, I thought it would be nice to show you how to create a shamrock graphic using PowerPoint.
Here’s what we will be making:
Figure 1
You will be able to use it as a picture file on your Facebook fan page, an infographic, or even a blog post. The easiest part of the tutorial is the outside part of the emblem, which consist of two circles.
Watch the Video:
How to Design a Shamrock in Powerpoint from Bonnie Gean
Creating Your Shamrock Border
To get started, create a new page. Go to the top of the PowerPoint screen and grab a few shapes. Choose Insert from the top menu, and then Shapes. Grab a circle, hold down the shift key, and draw it onto the canvas.
Figure 2
Once you have a circle drawn on the canvas, right-click your mouse and choose “Size and Position” to open the options box.. Click on the “Size” option and enter 3.75 inches for the width and height.
Figure 3
Next, click on the “Fill” command and change the fill to white. Afterward, change the line color to green. From the top menu, choose Format>>Align Center, and then choose Align Middle to position the circle on the canvas.
Next, you want to duplicate the circle for the inner section of the emblem. Right-click your mouse on top of circle 1 and choose, “Copy.” Then, hit your Control + V keys to paste circle 2 onto the canvas.
Figure 4
Let’s change the size of the new circle and add a dotted border. Right-click your mouse on top of circle #2; choose “Size and Position” from the options box. Select the “Size” option and change the height and width to 3.50 inches.
Choose the “Line Style” option. Set the Cap and Join type to round, and the Dash type to “Round Dot.” Also, change the Width to a 3 or 4 point; whichever you prefer most.
Lastly, drag your mouse over both circles. Choose Format>>Align Center and Align Middle to space the circles evenly apart. Then, choose “Group” from the top menu to piece the two circles together.
Figure 5
You should have a completed border for your shamrock graphic. We won’t need to work with this section again until we’ve finished drawing our shamrock. Place the circles on the side for now.
Creating Your Shamrock
To make the leafy portion of the shamrock, you will create hearts. But the hearts that come along with Powerpoint are not appropriate for this section. Instead, we will create our own with shapes.
Go to Insert>>Shapes and choose a circle. Draw it on the canvas and then return to Shapes and choose a square. Draw a square on the canvas next to your circle.
Right-click on the square and choose “Size and Position” to open the options box. Change the width and height to .75 for both shapes.
Click the “Fill” command and choose “No Fill” for both shapes. Click on “Line Color” and change the border to green for both shapes.
Figure 6
Next, you will want to turn the square 45-degrees. Click “Format” on the top menu and choose “Rotate>>More rotation options.” When the option box appears, add the number 45 to the Rotation box, which is located directly underneath the Height Box.
Figure 7
Click on your square, and from the top menu, choose “Align Center>>Align Middle” to position the square points in the center of the canvas. Click on the circle shape and move it over the top of your square shape until it snaps into place.
Figure 8
Now, right-click on the circle and choose “Copy.” Afterward, choose the Control + V keys to paste a second circle to your canvas. Align the new circle to the first one, then move it to the right until it snaps into the square shape.
Figure 9
Highlight the square and circles, then choose “Format” from the top menu and click the “Group” command to piece the three shapes together.
Once you’ve grouped the three pieces, you should see a tiny white square at the bottom of your heart. Move the heart drawing upwards until the white box (nearest to the bottom point) sits in the center of the canvas guides.
Figure 10
Right-click on the top of your heart and choose “Copy.” Using your Control + V Keys, paste a new heart to the canvas. Click “Format” from the top menu and then “Rotate>>More rotation options” and add the number negative 100 to the Rotation box.
Once you’ve rotated the second heart, use the white square at the bottom of the heart to slide it into place on the canvas guides. Repeat the above step, but rotate the third heart to 100 as shown in the figure below.
Figure 11
Drag your mouse over the heart outlines. Choose “Format” and “Group” from the Powerpoint menu. Right-click your mouse over the grouped elements and choose “Size and Position” to gain access to the options box.
In the options box, choose “Line Color” and then choose “No Line” to remove the green outlines. Then choose “Fill>>Solid Fill” and choose the same green color you choose earlier in the tutorial for the two big circles.
Highlight the grouped shamrock and choose “Group>>Ungroup” from the Powerpoint menu. Highlight the two heart leaves (on the bottom of your shamrock) and move them down on the canvas twice. (Use your arrow keys on the keyboard to move these two pieces.)
Figure 12
The last graphic to draw is the stem of your shamrock. Choose “Insert>>Shapes” from the Powerpoint menu and pick the “Block Arc” shape. Hold your mouse on the canvas and drag the block arc for your stem.
Place the stem at the bottom of your shamrock. From the top menu, choose “Rotate>>Rotate Left 90.” Right-click on the stem and position it in between the bottom heart leaves.
Figure 13
Notice there are two yellow diamonds located at the top and bottom of your stem. Drag each of the diamonds to create a point on both ends of your stem. Additionally, you can use the same diamonds to increase or decrease the thickness of your stem.
Once you’ve placed the stem where you like it, use the rotation tool to add a bit of rotation to your piece. Lastly, right-click your mouse on the stem and choose “Size and Position.”
Click the “Fill” command to make your stem the same color green as the shamrock. Afterward, choose “Line Color” and pick “No Line” to complete your stem.
Highlight all the pieces of your shamrock (leaves and stem) and using the top menu of Powerpoint, choose “Format” and “Group” to piece them together. Your shamrock should resemble the graphic below.
Figure 14
Add the Circle Border
It’s time to work with the circle emblem you created in the very beginning of the tutorial. Slide the emblem border from the right side of your canvas and position it behind your completed shamrock.
Figure 15
As you can see by my drawing, the circle border is bigger than the shamrock. It should be, but not quite as big as it is in Figure 15. If you need to make your border smaller, highlight it with your mouse, and hold down the shift key on the keyboard, as you drag the mouse across the canvas.
Figure 16
You may have to drag the emblem circle more than once to get the size you like best. Once it looks good to your eyes, align the circle border with your shamrock graphic.
To group the circles with your shamrock, highlight all the pieces and from the top menu, choose “Format” and then “Align>>Align Center” and “Align>>Align Middle.”
Figure 17
To finish the piece off, after aligning it center and middle, I highlighted the shamrock and moved it downward with my arrow key by one click. As a final touch, I hit “Group” from the Powerpoint menu and grouped the circle emblem with the shamrock.
Now your piece is ready to use or you can add text on top of the shamrock if you want to use it a a social image! Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
Did you follow along with this tutorial and Powerpoint? How did your Shamrock turn out? If you didn’t do the tutorial, do you plan to? Leave a comment below and let me know!
Thanks for reading,
– Bonnie
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Bonnie, This is so clever! It’s amazes me that you created this in powerpoint. I haven’t used powerpoint very much, but now I am tempted to experiment with it. Happy St. Patrick’s Day 🙂
Hi Barbara,
Happy Belated St. Patrick’s Day to you too!
Thanks for stopping by and letting me know you were here. It’s not often that new people stop and leave a comment, so I appreciate the chance to get to know you better!
I love using Adobe products, such as Illustrator and Photoshop, to create reusable graphics, but they are hard to learn and aren’t the right cup of tea for everybody.
While Powerpoint isn’t normally used as a graphic program (more so for presentations), I like to fool around with the program to learn what else is possible. 🙂
There is something to be said for having an OPENED mind. 🙂
IF you liked the shamrock tutorial, you might also like several others I’ve done in the past.
When you get a chance, return to the blog and do a search on Powerpoint and you’ll be pleasantly surprised to find other Powerpoint Tutorials for creating graphics. 🙂
– Bonnie
I am sure I can do this, thanks to your directions.
Jack,
That’s a wonderful attitude to have too! I know you can do this! Let me know how the tutorial works out for you!
– Bonnie
P.S. Have you used Powerpoint to make graphics in the past?
So clever of you to not only master this art but also to teach us how to do the same thing. I’m not ready to master the technique, but I appreciate your generosity.
Hi Francene,
Welcome back to the blog! I know you have it in you to create these simple graphics and when you’re ready to try it – please share your results! 🙂
– Bonnie
P.S. if you aren’t interested in learning about Powerpoint, is there something else I can help you with?
your post made it look so easy. thanks for the share
Amar,
I’m glad you liked the tutorial! I would love it if you could share it across social media, with your friends! 🙂
– Bonnie
Hi, Bonnie!
Wow, you’re really proficient with Power Point! Awesome tutorial! It took you 10 minutes, and would probably take me 30! LOL
Happy St. Patrick’s day. We’re invited for Corned Beef and Cabbage meal at friend’s house to celebrate, so that should be fun. My father’s family came from Ireland, so I’m half English and half Irish decent, but obviously American through and through.
Great video, and will share with friends…
Talk soon,
˜Carol
Hi, Carol!
In all honesty, it took me 14 minutes to create a shamrock in Powerpoint. ROFL I redid the video after I figured out a way to trim off some of the creation time. 🙂
Happy Belated St. Patrick’s Day to you!
How did you like the Corned Beef and Cabbage meal at your friend’s house? My mother used to make the same meal (and I loved the dish), but I have never recreated it here at home.
I don’t have mom’s recipe, so I fear getting one from online will spoil my memory of how mom’s dish tasted. ROFL
Both of my parents were PA Dutch with German decent. Even though both parents spoke the languages, I only picked up a few words here and there. I can make out what they’re saying, but I can’t speak it as fluently as they did.
So, do you drink green beer? 🙂
– Bonnie
Awesome!! Nope, don’t drink green beer or anything else… 🙂
Very tasty, but I’m not planning on having it very often. It’s a very heavy sort of meal. Lovely though.
Wonderful that you have an aptitude for language, I didn’t know that!
Talk soon,
˜Carol
Hi Carol,
I never tried green beer either so I was wondering what the drink tasted like, and I was hoping you could tell me. 🙂
I don’t remember corned beef and cabbage being very heavy on the stomach, but it has been more than 20 years since I ate the dish, so my memory escapes me.
Have you ever had a meat pie? My mother used to make a rabbit and chicken combination pie with potatoes, parsley flakes and onions. She would cook the chicken and rabbit together with salt and pepper. She cooked it until the kitchen filled with a wonderful aroma.
Then she took the meat and added it to the rest of the ingredients before she covered the dish with pie dough and baked it in the oven. It was the most delicious meal, Carol. Once you finished baking the pie, you would add a serving to a bowl and cover it with the heated broth.
Oh my. I just made myself hungry for some. LOL
– Bonnie
So appropriate for St. Patrick’s Day. I shared this detailed tutorial.
Hi Alana,
Thank you so much for sharing my tutorial on creating a shamrock in Powerpoint. I appreciate your kindness and LOVE seeing your name on my blog.
Is there anything you’ve wanted to learn how to do with PPT? Tell me, I would love to help you!
– Bonnie
This is very creative, Bonnie! I had no idea you could design something like this in PPT! This gives me ideas about designing quilts (even though I have actual quilt designing software!)
Hi Karen,
There’s a ton of things you can create with Powerpoint. Just pick a day each week and sit down in front of your screen and let your inner child run free!
You would be surprised what you can create! 🙂
I am fascinated by your response of “his gives me ideas about designing quilts (even though I have actual quilt designing software!)”
What exactly does that mean? If you have time, could you please explain to me how you can use Powerpoint for making quilts? I just started quilting last summer and I would love to know!
– Bonnie
Hey Bonnie,
Now that’s pretty cool. I use PowerPoint for a lot of my images still. It’s just a much easier program for me personally. I know it’s not really meant for a lot of graphics but when you don’t know how to use a lot of those other programs well you stick with what you know.
I did not follow along with you and I’m commenting on this post the day after St. Patrick’s Day but I probably will hold onto your instructions and give this one a try myself later on. Just to prove to myself I can do it if for no other reason.
Thanks for this great tutorial.
~Adrienne
Hi Adrienne,
I’ve done quite a few tutorials using Powerpoint. For example, I’ve done several Powerpoint tutorials for:
1. How to Make Social Media Images
2. How to Create a Starburst
3. How to Create an Appealing Video Cover
4. How to Create a Clown Image
5. How to Animate Icons in Powerpoint
I should probably bundle them together and produce a product because it seems there are quite a few people who don’t realize how versatile the program is for creating graphics.
No doubt, I will make more in the future. I have so much more to teach you! 🙂
Even though St. Patrick’s Day is over, you can still use shamrocks for social media images. The shamrock stands for luck and the message on the social media image can express messages about “fortune, making money online, or even luck!”
Let me know when you try the tutorial! I would love to see your final image!
Have a great day, Adrienne. Thanks for visiting!
– Bonnie Gean
P.S. Is there anything you would like to learn how to create in Powerpoint? If so, let me know! 🙂
Happy belated Paddy’s Day Bonnie! I love your vid tutorials with screenshot images too.
I don’t have PowerPoint but seeing you outline the shapes you use and how you connect everything together is really helpful. The technique can be used in other programs too then.
Hi Jan,
Happy belated St.Patty’s Day, Jan.
I’m glad you love my vid tutorial, and I hope you try creating the shamrock emblem, even if you don’t use Powerpoint. You can certainly use other programs to create it.
Would you like to learn how to make something else?
– Bonnie
Hi Bonnie,
This is my first time here. Nice to meet you. 🙂
Wow, that’s very creative. I love it.
I did not expect that the heart shape is a combination of the shape of circles and squares. Very simple but extraordinary.
I love you accompany this post with pictures, it was very helpful. 🙂
I rarely use PowerPoint, but it can be a reference for me. Thanks for that!
Thanks for sharing this tutorial, Bonnie.
Really helpful. Have a great week ahead!
~Nanda
Hi Nanda,
I am glad to meet you! Thank you for visiting.
There is a heart shape that arrives with Powerpoint, but the shamrock graphic doesn’t turn out as nicely using it, which is why I created my different heart shapes with circles and squares.
Now that you see how easy it is to create graphics using Powerpoint, do you think you’ll try creating this emblem?
Enjoy the rest of your week!
– Bonnie
Yes, I would give it a try. But not now. Maybe I could teach some of my friends tried to create this emblem. Most importantly, I already know how to create it..hehe 🙂
Thanks for contributing in my learning curve, Bonnie.
I hope you can enjoy the rest of your week too!
~Nanda
Hi Nanda,
I’m glad you found the tutorial helpful, and I hope your friends like it too. Let me know if there is any other graphic you want me to show you how to create. I would be glad to create it.
– Bonnie
Pretty cool here, Bonnie.
I’m not good at powerpoint at all. I know the basics but don’t know how to do this like how you did. A lot of people use powerpoint for various things but don’t know HOW to actually use it. Have you considered creating a customized course for people that want to learn how to do it properly? Like on Udemy or something?
Hi Andrew,
I’m sure there are courses out there already that could teach you everything you want to know concerning Powerpoint. Have you looked for such a course, Andrew? Do you feel the existing courses are lacking somehow?
If I knew there were people looking to learn how to create graphics in Powerpoint, I would seriously think about creating such a course. But to date, I haven’t conducted a survey. I guess I should seriously consider offering one.
Thanks for the suggestion, Andrew! Enjoy the rest of your week!
– Bonnie
Hey, This is very artistic, Bonnie!
I had no idea that anyone could generate something like this in PPT!
Powerpoint is one of an essential tool for many businesses and individual for their business. People with the frequent demand of business presentation, are always studying for some useful & unique tutorials.
Thanks for sharing!!!
Hi Alphonse,
There are many things (besides presentations) that you can create with PPT – including infographics and mandala art! Though, I can’t take full credit for this shamrock. I learned it from somewhere else, and just wanted to share it.
So glad you visited!