Welcome to another Make It Monday where I attempt to combine my love of all things paper, with other craft genres that my store supports. Today’s challenge?
Macramé !
I grew up in the 70’s and 80’s and remember how popular macramé was back then. I don’t think my Mum had any plant hangers but I won’t swear to it! While we were all in lock-down in 2020 and rediscovering lost crafts, macramé boomed! It had started to resurface before that (or maybe it never really went away?) but with everyone at home digging out their old craft bins, it seemed like you couldn’t turn on your favourite social media channel without your feed being bombarded by all the creations.
What’s that saying? “If you can’t beat them, join them”? Well okay then. But I’m going to do it my way!
Since my way involved not knowing a thing about macramé , I started where everyone else starts … YouTube! After a few attempts, here is the tutorial for the mini hanging that I managed to create.
And here is my finished card.
Other than a couple attempts several weeks ago when I first came up with the idea of adding macramé to a card, I’ve never done any macramé . None. I used to create loads of friendship bracelets back in the day (remember when we wandered around with a safety pin just above the knees of our jeans and a half finished bracelet hanging down the front?) I figured, how hard could it be?
Um … harder than you’d think. So to put your mind at ease right away, I will NOT be teaching the macramé classes at the store! LOL! I will leave that to the much more talented Kim from frogandstitch.
Here is a look at my process though. I was working on my desk with my laptop open and the video I shared above playing. I figured following along was the best way to go. I forgot to grab one of the small dowels we have at the store so used a paper straw instead. It worked really well actually and I do like the punch of colour it adds to the finished card.
I used regular baker’s twine for this and had no clue how long to cut my pieces so just guessed. (I measured for the sake of this post and they were each about 24″ long). Once I had them all tied to the straw with the Lark’s Head Knot, I taped the straw to my desk. That way it wouldn’t constantly move around as I tied the knots.
When creating the pattern of knots (Square Knots) you progressively remove sets of string from the active work space so I taped these down the desk also. I didn’t want to run the risk of accidently picking up the wrong strings – especially since the strings I was working with are significantly finer and lighter than the rope in the example video. As you can see from the photo below, I eventually got something resembling a triangular pattern!
Not too shabby if I do say so myself! But … we weren’t finished. We needed to do Clove Hitch Knots down both sides to finish it.
The Clove Hitch knots on the right were almost my undoing and I’m still not happy with them but I wasn’t about to tear them all out a third time! Sometimes you just have to accept your efforts for what they are! LOL!
I then unraveled the strings and – using my dog’s brush – brushed them out as best I could. They did split a bit and there was a lot of string fuzz in my dog’s brush after so that maybe wasn’t the best tool to use. But hey, worth a try. Once I’d brushed out the “fringe” I trimmed it and then set about making my card.
For this I used a fun stamp set from Catherine Pooler called Circle Party, and my Distress Oxide inks in Festive Berries, Speckled Egg, and Hickory Smoke.
I wasn’t sure any of my normal liquid adhesives would hold the macramé piece in place so I hot glued it to the card. And my finishing touch was some grey pearls from Honey Bee Stamps.
This was a fun project to try. And I love the finished card – especially that stamp set! But I don’t think I’ll take up macramé as another hobby … yet.
Thank you for stopping by today. I’d love to hear if you’ve tried to add other craft genres into your paper crafting – macramé, cross stitch, crochet, sewing, clay, beading … you get the idea. And if so, how did it go? Did it lead to a new hobby? Share your insights and project links in the comments so I can check them out.
See you next week … maybe. I’m taking my eldest to university across the country so next week’s post will depend entirely on how organized and efficient I can be over the next few days. Wish me luck!
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