Wrapped Paracord BraceletI’ve got an incredibly simple tutorial for you today for an easily customized, fun bracelet you can make with paracord and knotting cord. Come check it out!

Here’s what you’ll need:

wrap cord supplies

  1. 1 yard of micro thickness (.5 mm) Chinese knotting cord, in a color of your choice. I used a fun multi-color one called Fluorescent Mix that you can purchase here.
  2. 16″ paracord, in a color of your choice
  3. button
  4. binder clip (optional)

To start, fold your paracord in half. Measure the loop formed by the paracord with your button to make sure that the button can slip through the loop. You will begin wrapping at a point that makes the loop a good size for your button.

Take the knotting cord and place the end of it parallel to the paracords. Begin wrapping it tightly around the paracord, catching the tail that you laid parallel underneath.

wrapcord1Keep wrapping until you’ve got about an inch of wrapping, so you are certain that the tail of the cord is secure.

wrapcord2Cut the tail off as close to the wrapping as possible.

wrapcord3Wrap a few more loops to hide the end of the cord.

wrapcord4Now you will start wrapping in whatever pattern you choose. The easiest wrap is to space each turn out about 1/4″.

wrapcord5Keep the wrapping tight and evenly spaced. If you are having trouble with your dangling cords (and who doesn’t, really?), you can secure them together with a binder clip so they don’t flop around.

wrapcord6Wrap until your bracelet is just about the desired length, and then begin wrapping each round flush to the next, like you did at the beginning.

wrapcord7Once you’ve got about a half inch of flush wrapping, you will add your button. Feed the cord up through one of the holes and back down, and wrap around the cords again. (If you have a button with a shank, simply feed the cord through the shank.)

wrapcord8Do the same for the other button holes, if you have them. Then continue wrapping around the paracords and tie off the knotting cord a few times.

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And you’re done!

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You can make different patterns depending on what cord or cords you use, and how you wrap them. I did one with lime cord that I wrapped in a 1 – 3 – 5 rounds pattern, and I did one with 3 different cords in an ombre pattern.

wrapcord12It’s so easy you can finish a bracelet in about 10 minutes. So you can make a bunch and have an arm party!

Hope you enjoy!

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knotbracelettitle

I love making these cord bracelets. There are so many ways to knot, macrame, or twist them up. And I’m definitely hooked on it now!

Today I’ve got this infinity knot bracelet to show you. It’s really quite easy to do, although it does require some concentration while you are making the knot. But you can easily bang it out in about an hour’s worth of active time, with time in between for drying and such.

Here’s what you’ll need:

infinity bracelet supplies

  1.  3/8″ wide white ribbon, 16″
  2. binder clips
  3. fabric stiffener
  4. fabric glue
  5. Korean knotting cord, in 1.5mm or 2mm, or a combination, 1 yard of each color
  6. fusible velcro

For this bracelet, I used a combination of 1.5mm and 2mm cord. As you may be able to tell from the photo above, the center green cord is 2mm and the light and dark blue ones are 1.5mm, slightly thinner. It worked out well, even though I was kind of skeptical at first.

Decide what you want your pattern to be. I chose a green center with light blue and dark blue on the outsides. I thought it looked suitably preppy for what is sort of a preppy-type knot.

knotbracelet2You want to choose your pattern first, but you won’t worry about keeping it in this order until you’ve got your knot completed.

Find the center of your cords, making sure that they are all stacked evenly (that is, you don’t have one cord that’s shorter than the others on one end and longer on the other).

knotbracelet3Step 1: Time to start knotting! Keeping the center of your cords at the top, take the left-hand cords and bring the ends up and over, laying them on top of themselves higher up. You are essentially making a loop with the left cords.

knotbracelet4Step 2: Now, bring the right hand cords behind that loop.

knotbracelet5Step 3: Bring the ends of the right hand cords up and over the ends of the left hand cords, laying them on top.

knotbracelet6Step 4: You’ll notice you have a loop at the top, the center of which should be the center of your cords (it’s not that important at this point that it be perfectly centered, but I wanted you to know how to identify this loop). You will now bring the ends of the right-hand cords (that you just bent up over the left cords) under the first side (left) of this loop. Don’t worry, you’re almost there!

knotbracelet7Step 5: Here’s the trickiest part, but you are almost done. Looking at the photo above, you’ll see there’s another loop right below the cords you are working with. This is the initial loop that you made on the left side. Feed the ends of the right cords over the top of that loop. (See below.) After you feed it over the top of that loop, go back under the right side of the top loop, the “center of the cords loop,” if you will.

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Step 6: Last knotting step! Bring the cords you have been working with up and through the loop you originally created with the left-hand cords. You are essentially bringing it up and over the right side of this loop. You’ll see that your knot is complete with this last step.

knotbracelet9If this seems a tad confusing, check this diagram for steps 5 and 6:

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Bring the working cords (in right hand) along the path of the red arrows.

Phew! Done knotting. You’ll want to tighten the knot up a bit, but not too much.

This looks a mess. It’s time to fix up your cords so they follow your original pattern idea. It’s easiest to do this step by step, following the line of the knot. So pick a part of the knot to start on, and begin forming the strings into the pattern.

knotbracelet10You’ll see I started with the cords that come out of the right side of the knot. Continue to straighten them, following the cords along through the knot. Here, I’ve straightened them past the first left-hand loop.

knotbracelet11A little more straightening…

knotbracelet12And a bit more, and we’re done! Time to tighten up the knot properly.

knotbracelet13Tighten up the knot by pulling gently from the inside of the knot out. Don’t simply pull on the ends, or you’ll undo all your good work. Start with a section towards the middle and tighten that area, and move outward pulling up slack until you get to the outside of the knot. You’ll have to fiddle with it a bit, because you don’t want to pull it so tightly that the pattern gets distorted.

knotbracelet14Lovely! Next, we need to stiffen up the knot so that it keeps this great knot and pattern. For that, we use fabric stiffener and a brush. Simply brush a generous amount of fabric stiffener onto the knot, coating both sides and letting the stiffener soak in.

knotbracelet15Following the directions on your fabric stiffener, let this knot dry. You’re going to need the knot to conform to your wrist, though, so you’ll want to dry it in a curved position. I used the binder clips to set my knot up with a slight curve to it. Clip the edges of the knot so that the cords don’t get kinked.

knotbracelet16Then bend the knot into a curve that will conform to your wrist (it doesn’t have to be exact).

knotbracelet17Once it’s dry, you’ll add the backing to the free-hanging cords to create the band of your bracelet. Cut two pieces of 3/8″ ribbon to about 8″ each. Using your fabric glue, glue the cords in their pattern to the ribbon, extending the ribbon a little bit into the knot, but not so much that the ribbon shows through the holes in the knot. The idea here is to hide completely the ribbon that is holding the cords in place.

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Let the fabric glue dry with the bracelet shaped into a curved position as it will be on your arm.

knotbracelet18Once everything is dry, you can cut your bracelet to the proper length, making sure to leave about 2″ for the overlapping clasp. You can add a little fabric glue to the ends to prevent fraying. To create a clasp, add some fusible velcro to the band.

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Make sure you actually put it on to measure where you want the ends to overlap, and make sure you are putting the velcro on the proper sides of the band.

knotbracelet21 All done! Wear it with pride. And jeans.

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chainrhine4Back a few weeks ago, I showed you how to make the super simplest chic earrings ever, by simply attaching some chain to an earring hook. I also made a slightly more complicated version that is truly not complicated at all. It takes a few more steps, but it will take you less than 10 minutes and it’s super fun, too.

Refer back to my original post for the overall instructions and supply list. In addition to what’s there, you’ll need:

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Here you see two things: a length of rhinestone cup chain, and a cup chain connector. You’ll need two of each of these. NOTE: make sure you get the same size connector as the stones in your cup chain; that is, if you get a 4mm cup chain, make sure you get the 4mm connectors, too.

To start, you need to attach the connector to the cup chain. Lay the first stone into the connector cup, and then use pliers to squeeze the connector shut.

chainrhine2Now you can hang the rhinestone chain along with a metal chain.

The only other trick here is that if you use only one jump ring, the rhinestones will hang sideways. Wah, wah! If you add another jump ring, though, the rhinestones will hang forward. Problem solved! So attach one, and then another, jump ring to the rhinestone chain, and add any other chains you want as well.

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Then attach the earring hook and you’re done! Boom!

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fairycastle8

I recently did a roundup of fairy gardens on Apartment Therapy, and so I’ve been thinking about things that are miniature and twee and sweet and all that. I’ve also been working in my garden, so I decided maybe it was about time I had a small corner that had something that could vaguely be construed as fairy.

But I like me some castles, so I wanted it to be a castle, with stones and mortar and the whole medieval shabang. I’ve never grouted before (can you use grout as a verb? I appear to have just done so!), but I’m game for anything and as soon as I saw that you can buy “pre-mixed grout” I was all in.

Here’s what you need for your fairy castle, and all of these things are available at home improvement stores like Home Depot:
fairy castle supplies

  1. Pre-mixed grout. I would get a darker color if I had to do it again.
  2. A small flowerpot whose mouth will fit over your PVC pipe (see #3).
  3. A length of PVC pipe, whatever height you want your castle to be. Add about 4 extra inches for the roof line and for plunging in the earth.
  4. Small tiles, rocks, pebbles… whatever you want your castle to be made out of.
  5. Tools not pictured: hot glue gun, craft stick, rags

I bought those tile slabs at Home Depot along with a few more. They have a good selection and the sheets are relatively cheap.

To start, think about the pattern you want to build. I knew I wanted some rows of tiles, so I cut my tile sheet into rows of 2 tiles and wrapped it around the pipe. As you start your pattern, make sure you leave about 2 – 3″ of the bottom clear so that you can stick it into the ground.

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To secure it, I used a little hot glue on the back, knowing that it only needed to be secure enough to hold until I got to the grout.

After these tiles, I picked off these flat stones from another tile sheet I bought, and I started adding them one at a time, arranging them as I imagine some fairy construction crew would do it. I secured each of these with a little hot glue.

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As you approach the top, stop adding rocks or tiles when they will interfere with your flower pot sitting on top of the pipe. I left enough un-tiled space so that the flower pot would sit flush on the pipe, not on top of the stones (since the stones made the pipe wide enough that the flower pot didn’t sit properly).

Now, do the same with your flower pot, knowing that this part will serve as the roof. I used some different tiles/rocks on this section, you know, just for fun.

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Once you’ve got your rocks on, it’s time to start grouting. Be prepared with a craft stick or some other tool to slather on the grout, and a few damp rags to wipe the grout off of the rocks and tiles.

fairycastle6Slather on the grout one section at a time, making sure you are pushing it into all the nooks and crannies. The top and the bottom pose a little problem; I free-handed adding a small lip of grout to the bottom, underneath the tiles that end the pattern.

Once you’ve got a section done, use the damp rag to wipe the excess grout off of the tiles and rocks. This part is tricky, too, because you don’t want to pull the grout out from between the rocks, but you do want to get it off of their faces.

fairycastle7You can use a sponge, too, if it works better for you. This step is probably the hardest.

Once you’ve grouted your whole cylinder and flower pot, let it dry. After 4 hours, you can go back and touch up anywhere there’s still grout film left on the tiles or rocks; I used the scrubby side of a sponge and my fingernails to chip off any excess.

Let your pieces dry over night to fully cure them.

To place in your garden, choose the right fairy spot, and then push the cylinder’s bare 2 – 3″ into the dirt. This will stabilize the tower. If you want more stability, you could add some dirt inside the cylinder. Place the flower pot upside down on top of the tower, and your fairy castle is complete!

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I made an entire fairy neighborhood, sort of. I hesitate to call it a fairy garden. But I added a small cobblestone walk; I simply took one of the sheets of tile (this one has river stones that I used on the castle), laid it in the dirt, and covered over the seams with soil.

I also saw this cute idea on Pinterest and copied it; I turned a large pot on its side and planted some plants inside of it, so that they are kind of spilling out of the pot. I thought it was cute enough that it deserved to be in this ‘hood.

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As soon as all the plants grow in and smoosh up against each other, I will be delighted with the results!

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