Cherry Blossom Macrame Tree Wall Decor

One of my biggest dreams is to see Sakura - the beautiful Spring season in Japan where each tree blooms with magical cherry blossoms.I wanted to bring a piece of that magic to my wall in my living room and that's how the idea for this Macrame Cherry Blossom Tree Wall Decor came to life.

In this project I will show you how to create beautiful macrame flowers - petal by petal.

Let's get knotting!

1. A canvas - mine was 40x40 cm
2. 3 mm macrame cord - brown,pink and powder pink colors
3. Scissors
4. A hot glue gun
5. Tape

For the tree to be as realistic as possible I chose to make two different sized petals - bigger and smaller ones.

In this step I will be showing you how to make the bigger petals.

Start out by cutting a light pink macrame cord that's 40-45 cm long.Each 3 mm cord has 4 twisted strands.Since we need the petals to be as small as possible separate and untwist the strands of cord.

To make a single petal you will need 3 strands.

Begin the creation of your petal by taking a strand of cord and folding it in half.Place it on a flat surface and tape it down in the folded part.

Next,take another strand of cord and again - fold it in half.Tuck that cord underneath the taped cord and make a vertical double half-hitch knot.

To make the vertical double half hitch-knot you are going to form a loop on your right,wrap it around your taped cord and pull it through.Then you are going to repeat the same process once again:

1. Make a loop on your right
2. Wrap around and through the loop
3. Pull everything nicely together and secure the vertical double half-hitch knot

Refer to the video for a clear demonstration of the knot.

Next separate the taped strands - you will have 4 strands total on the table.Grab the last strand,fold it in half and make a double half-hitch knot on the right strand of the cord you taped down a few steps ago.Continue by making another double half-hitch knot to the left strand.

Remove the tape and turn everything upside down.You will have three rows of strands on each side.

Work in sections - take the first strand on the right and use it as a carrier cord to make more vertical double half-hitch knots using the second and third strand.Repeat the same on the right side.

For the second row(or column) of vertical double half-hitch knots repeat the same process but after you make the first knot add the second strand to the first and use both of them as a carrier strand.Repeat the same on the left.

Finally remove the tape and make a square knot to keep everything in place:

Take the left cord and create a small loop placing it over the middle cords,creating a shape resembling the number 4.Take the right cord and place it over the left cord.Start to create your knot by taking the right cord under the middle cords.Then take the right cord through the loop formed by the left cord.Pull the cords to tighten and you have the first half of the square knot.

To make up the second half of the square knot you will repeat the steps working in the opposite direction.

Start with the right cord and create a small loop placing it over the middle cords,again creating a shape of a mirror number 4.Now take your left cord and place it over the right cord. Create your knot by taking the left cord and going under the middle cords and through the loop formed by the right cord. Pull to tighten.

The very last step to finish your petal is to pull all of the hanging strands down gently to make the petal more compact and petal-like.

To make the smaller petals you need to repeat the same knots as the previous step exept that here you will only have a single row of vertical double half-hitches - when you get to the step of turning the petal upside down make a single vertical half hitch knot and immediately after that combine the two strands to turn them into a single carrier strand.Make the second double half-hitch and repeat on the left side.

Finish the smaller petal with a square knot at the bottom and pull the strands down to make the petal more compact.

But how many petals will you need? Well,that depends on the size of your tree,so make as many big and small petals as you wish!

Now comes the fun part - making the cherry blossoms.

Cut a small piece of the powder pink colored cord and fold it in half.

Separate the strands of cord and make it look like a fringe.This will be the stigma of the flower.

Each flower consists of 5 petals and one stigma - take your petals and place the stigma in the middle.

To secure everything in place grab a separate strand of light pink cord and form a loop,leaving a short tail of cord in the direction of the flower.Place the loop at the base of the flower and begin wrapping the cord around several times.Once you are done pull the strand through the loop you formed at the beginning and pull the short tail to tighten.

Your cherry blossom is complete!

A tip I have is to leave some small petals as they are so you can use them as small buds when making your tree.

If needed you can trim the powder pink colored cord (the stigma) down to make it look prettier.

Prepare the frame of the tree - remove the canvas paper and the metal pieces.

If needed sand down gently to make the surface smoother.

You can even stain the frame but I prefer a more natural look to the wood.

It's time to make the tree.

Take a flower and cut down some of the strands in the middle.This way you ensure that after wrapping with the brown cord the branches are not bigger than they need to be.

Cut a long piece of dark brown cord and separate the strands.Using a single strand start wrapping around each cherry blossom to create the branches.Keep the pressure even and wrap everything tightly.Make sure that no pink cord is visible underneath.

To make the tree look as realistic as possible use the small petals to make little buds.

Place your bigger blossoms at the end,further away and place the small buds close to them.

When you are happy with the length of each branch leave the brown cord as it is - do not cut it and do not glue it. We will be needing it in the next step.

To connect the branches place the pieces you want next to each other.

Attach them by combining the two brown strands they both have since you didn't cut anything in the previous step.Continue wrapping down the branch now with two strands of brown cord and add as many buds and flowers as you desire as you go using the same technique.

Once you make the branches you will probably run out of cord to make the rest of the Cherry Tree.

To solve this issue cut a bunch of pink cord and separate its strands.

Once you are happy with the amount of your strands and you think they will be enough,tuck them in the middle of the short cords of the branches and continue wrapping the brown cord around the whole bunch of strands.

Connect the big branches and make the stem of the tree by continuously wrapping everything with brown cord.

Once you are done making the stem of the tree separate the leftover fringe into 6-7 smaller sections - these will be the roots.

Start defining each root by wrapping it around with more brown cord.

Once you are done with wrapping the roots dab a little hot glue to each brown cord to secure everything in place and cut the leftover.

Repeat this step with all of the root pieces.

Cut the leftover pink strands of cord leaving about 1 cm off.

Apply a small amount of hot glue and glue down the roots to the frame.Play around with the roots - move them,wrap them around each other.This way the tree will look even more beautiful.

Finally glue some of the flowers that lay on the frame down with hot glue.

The final step of this project is to create the hanging root fringes.

Cut various lengths of brown cord and make Lark's head knots with them underneath the roots:

1. Take a piece of brown cord and fold it in half.
2. Place the loop you have created over the frame and inbetween the roots.
3. Reach under the loop and over the frame and grab the two loose strands.
4. Bring them down through the loop and pull and tighten the knot.

Repeat this step until the roots are covered with fringe.

Trim any excess fringe off.It doesn't need to be perfect - just play around and trim as much or as little of the cord as you would like.

Now all that's left to do is hang your artwork to your wall!

I love the way this project turned out - it brought a piece of Japan to my home.

Thank you for reading and happy knotting!