How to Make A Braided Ribbon Bracelet

Making a braided ribbon bracelet is a fun and easy craft for adults and children. You don’t need very many supplies, and you won’t spend an arm and a leg buying the supplies. You can make them for yourself or surprise your friends with your bracelet making skills! Furthermore, with the ribbon that is left, you can also make bookmarks. Follow these easy steps and you’ll be on your way to creating beautiful ribbon bracelets and bookmarks.

Ribbon Bracelet #1

First, you will need to get your supplies. It may seem lengthy, but you’ll be surprised at how many you might have already.

• wide satin ribbon
• faceted round glass bead
• metal pendant
• bead caps
• jumpring
• headpin
• lobster claw clasp
• 0.8mm copper wire
• scissors
• side cutting pliers
• round nose pliers

Step One: Cut the ribbon into three equal strips, then braid them into a common braid.

Step Two: When you’ve braided enough to reach a good length for a bracelet, take one strand and tie an overhand knot. Trim off the excess ribbon off the other two strands.

Step Three: Make two cord ends by wrapping the 0.8 mm brass wire around the ends.

Step Four: Using the glass bead, headpin, and bead cap, make an ornamental dangle.

Step Five: Next, open a jump ring and attach the pendant, clasp, and beaded dangle on one end of the bracelet. Then, close the jump ring. You can use the pliers to open and close the jump ring.

Step Six: Connect the two ends of the bracelet together using the clasp and the other jump ring and you’re done!

Ribbon Bracelet #2

Supplies: 2 ribbons, 80-90 cm each. As an example, we’ll use blue and orange.

Steps:

1. Place the ribbons side by side and tie a knot.

2. Then make two loops, one with each color ribbon

3. Place the blue loop into the orange loop.

4. Pull and tighten the orange loop.

5. Make another orange loop, and place it into the blue loop.

6. Tighten the blue loop, then make another blue loop.

7. Place it into the orange loop, then tighten it.

8. Continue following the same steps in order to complete your bracelet.

With any extra ribbon you may have, you can now make bookmarks. There are a couple of ways that you can make these, one simple and one a little more complex.

Bookmark Method #1: Very Simple

1. Using a satin ribbon, cut a desired length of ribbon for your bookmark.
2. Tie knots in both sides to keep it from unraveling, and now it’s ready for use!

Bookmark Method #2: Fancy

1. Use ribbon clamps to attach special objects to a wide ribbon. The object might be an animal toy or a plastic alphabet letter.

2. Attach the ribbon clamps on one end of the ribbon. Then, clamp it down with pliers.

3. Attach the decoration by sewing it on or tying it with another piece of ribbon.

Use one of these three methods to make a unique bookmark for a friend or a child in your life and to encourage reading. Plus, don’t be afraid to be creative and come up with your own stylistic design for a bracelet or bookmark!

Bio

This guest contribution comes from The Ribbon Retreat, an online store offering arts and crafts material for various types of projects. Some of these products include offray ribbon,  grosgrain ribbon and even hardware supplies.