DIY Gift Idea: Paracord Bracelets

From my experience, it's a lot more difficult to come up with gift ideas for men than for women. So for those of you who, like myself, are struggling with gift ideas for their brothers/dads/boyfriends/husbands, especially this holiday season, here's a gift idea for the outdoorsy/adventurous men (and women) in your life: Paracord Bracelets!

A couple of paracord bracelets I made for a friend.

Paracord, also known as parachute cord, is a type of thin nylon rope that was originally used for, well, parachutes. It's composed of a outer sheath with 7 core strands and typically has a minimum breaking strength of 450 or 550 pounds. Paracord bracelets also go by the name of "survival bracelets". The cord in these bracelets are woven in such a way that one bracelet can contain around 8-14 feet or paracord, more or less, depending on the type of "weave" you use. During emergency situations, like say for broken straps, or a water rescue, or a tourniquet (okay, morbid example, I know) these can be unraveled and you have several feet of cord at your disposal.

Raw paracord with the core strands exposed.

I first heard of paracord bracelets from Dax. I think he saw it on either The Awesomer or Reddit. Now, Dax and I have this thing for giving each other bracelets (we make a lot of those embroidery thread friendship bracelets for each other). When Dax said he wanted a paracord bracelet, I really wanted to get him one, but at that time we couldn't find it in any of the outdoor or sports shops. Once again, I turned to my friend Google and I was able to look up a local online shop that sold paracord by the foot. They also sold ready-made and made-to-order paracord bracelets plus some other paracord creations. But I thought it would be nicer if the bracelet was hand-made by myself, too.

Paracord bracelets are usually woven using macrame braids/stitches. You can make it with or without a buckle. There are a whole lot of video tutorials now on YouTube so I don't think I need to post my own. I do recommend checking out TyingItAllTogether's YouTube channel for tutorials on how to do various knots and braids.

BTW, I get my paracord from The Para Shop Manila. They have quite a selection of colors, too. I made myself a hot pink and electric blue one. Hahaha.

Making my hot pink and electric blue paracord bracelet. Hihi.

Here's another one using a different kind of weave.

Made using half hitch knots.

Recently, a friend asked about Dax's bracelet and after explaining what it was, she thought it was a brilliant idea and asked me to make a couple for her to give as gifts. She says I should make a business out of it. Haha.

Of course, I highly recommend making them yourselves, especially if you're giving them to someone. It just makes it more special.:) But if you don't have the time or patience to do so, you're more than welcome to order from me. Just comment/text/email jika(dot)macachor(at)gmail.com/Facebook or Twitter message me.:)

Mine and Dax's.:)

- Jix.

DIY Framed Accessory Holder

I used to hang my accessories using these hooks with adhesive backing because I hated poking holes in my wall. But the problem with adhesive hooks is that they would eventually lose their stickiness and fall off, never to stick again. Now my wall is scarred with ugly adhesive residue.

I needed a method of hanging my accessories that would hold up well and be able to cover the adhesive stains on the wall. So I made this:

I can't take full credit for the idea, though. I've seen similar projects on Pinterest and other blogs. I just had to figure out how to DIY it.

This was made around two weeks ago. I've already hung it up, but there was still a section of wall with adhesive residue that was still exposed. So I decided to make a smaller version to cover it up. I also documented the process so I could show you guys how I did it, in case you want to make one yourself.:)

What you'll need:

• A nice picture frame. 
• A sheet of cork. Just plain cork. Make sure it doesn't have any backing like wood or hard board or else you won't be able to cut it.
• Adhesive. I used my spray adhesive for this but I think using rubber cement or wood glue would work just as well, if not better.
• Box cutter, ruler, cutting mat, and old newspaper (to protect your work area).
• Fine gauge sandpaper

Where I bought my materials: 

• Picture frame - My original idea was to find one of those cheap, gaudy, carved, gold frames and spray paint it with a matte white. Surprisingly, those frames were hard to come by. But then I found this one. Though it's made of plastic and not quite as big as I wanted, it was exactly the look I was going for and I didn't even need to do any painting. I got this at the home section of SM Department Store. The bigger frame was, I think, Php 179.75 and the smaller one Php 129.75.

• Cork - I found the cork in the office supplies section of SM Makati Department Store for Php 64.75. It came in an approximately 12"x18" sheet and was enough for the two frames.
• The spray adhesive was something I already had from my thesis days. You can get it at National Bookstore or in hardware stores. Rubber cement and wood glue, of course, may also be found in hardware stores.

Instructions:

       1. Remove the backing and the glass from the picture frame.

       2. Trace the shape of the backing onto the cork and cut it out.

       3. See if the cork fits into the back of the frame. If not, trim it with the cutter or sand it down. If you're OC like me, you can sand the ragged edges of the cork (it usually gets ragged when you cut it) to smooth them out.

       4. You'll notice that the cork is a bit thicker than what the frame allows for so what I did was cut little notches in the corners so I could slip in the plastic tabs that held the backing in place.

       5. Apply adhesive on the flat side of the frame backing (the one without the stand and the hanger loops) and stick it on the cork.

And you're done!

I took a cue from my sister and Anj's comments on my Instagram about using earrings as pins for the cork.

I got this set of earrings from AI Online Shop for Php 18.00. I also got bigger ones for my necklaces at Php 21.00 per set. The earring posts were a bit too long, though. So I trimmed them down with a wire cutter and voila!

You can either choose to let the frame stand or hang it up on the wall. I hung mine up using these small plastic hooks with tiny nails in them. (In the photo, you can see the adhesive residue I'm trying to hide)

This is what my accessory "corner" looks like now.

I'm so happy with it! Looks so organized and pretty! Now, for rest of the room.:p

- Jix.