Eco Savvy Rainbow Bangle

Turn a masking tape roll into a beautiful Eco Savvy Rainbow Bangle.  This cute accessory is great for summer and perfect for women of all ages.  Kids and teens will also love creating their own unique handmade bracelet designs.  Mix and match bangles or make one to match your favorite outfit.  This is an inexpensive and fun green crafting project that's great for a weekend or a rainy day.

Materials:

• Flat cotton knitting yarn, 17 inches long, color: any shade of teal
• The inner paper roll of a wide scotch tape (or protective paper tape), large enough to slip your hand through
• A strip of colorful stretchy fabric, length: the length of your paper roll’s periphery + 0.5”, wide enough to wrap around the paper roll + 0.5”
• Sewing needle
• Thread, color: pick one matching the colors of your colorful stretchy fabric srip
• 25 inches of colorful yarn
• Scissors
• Glue

Instructions:

1. If the paper roll is too wide, you can cut it in half using a craft knife.   First, you will need to make  a guiding line with your pencil,  all around the paper roll, to cut on.   
   
   
    
2. Cutting the paper roll in half won’t be that easy – proceed with caution and don’t  be impatient.  It takes some time and persistence.   Alternatively, you can use a narrow paper roll, to avoid this step.
    
3. Cut 4 inches from your teal cotton knitting yarn and put it aside.  Cut the remaining 13 inches of teal yarn in half.
    
4. To continue, wrap the stretchy colorful fabric around the paper roll and sew the edges  together on the inside of the paper roll.
   
   
    
5. Then, wrap the colorful yarn around two fingers of your left hand (your pointer and middle finger) but not tightly.
    
6. When finished,  using the fingers of your right hand, push the wrapped yarn so you take it off your left hand fingers . When you take it off it should look like a bunch of wrapped loops.  Take your scissors and cut at the top and the bottom of this bunch of loops.  Now you have a bunch of short yarn threads. 
    
7. It’s time to take the 4 inch piece of flat teal yarn you had put aside, when you began this project. Tie it around the middle of this bunch of short yarn threads.  Make a tight double knot.  You have just made a yarn bow!  Spread it a bit with your fingers, so it looks even better.
    
8. Glue the colorful yarn bow onto your bangle.  Wait for the glue to harden.
   
   
    
9. To continue,  make a knot on one side of your 6.5” of teal yarn.  Twist and wrap the yarn around this knot – you will be making a rosette (see photo 4).  When finished,  glue the rosette next to the bow, on its left or right side. Wait for the glue to dry completely.
    
10. Make one more rosette with the second piece of teal cotton yarn and glue it on the other side of the bow.
     
11. When the  glue has dried completely, your colorful eco bracelet is ready to wear.

Tips:

• This type of bangle is great for wearing higher up your arm – it’s too large to wear it on the wrist.  However, if you prefer wearing bangles on your wrist you can make it of a smaller size by wrapping fabric strips (of any color) around the paper roll in layers,  before covering it with the final layer of the colorful stretchy fabric.
   
• If you want a “fuller” bow, you could use 26 inches of colorful yarn instead of 13 inches but you need to know that it would be more difficult to tie the knot around the short yarn threads, after cutting the loops. A better solution would be to use much thicker yarn instead of doubling the length.