A Very Corky Christmas
It's all about corks today at The Homeless Finch. I have this mountain of wine bottle corks. No I did not drink all these bottles! I have been saving the corks from a few nice bottles of Chianti, but the majority of what you see here was given to me on my last visit to a nice Italian restaurant in my neighborhood. I mentioned that I had started collecting them and the next thing you know, our waiter brought out a bag full of them! So, I set out to see what kinds of things I could come up with for the holidays. Here is what I came up with....
Tied a simple piece of plaid fabric to the hanging string....done. Sweet.
This is done with one cork cut in 6 pieces and another cork cut in half lengthwise and then in half again for the truck. I used about 16 inches of jute. |
Notice how on this one, I used the end of the work stained with wine for the top. |
I made several of these little trees because I also want to use a few on top of packages. I tried out making the tree larger, but it was too bulking for an ornament, so I did this instead with the larger one.
I glued it onto a piece of spare fabric to give it stability. I had this little coffee bag sitting in my "Oh, I will just keep this, because I think I can use it someday" pile. |
Here are the results...
I think this little bag would be great if giving a nice bottle opener to someone. |
Next I set out to fashion something without having to cut the cork, using spare buttons, hooks and beads. Here is what I came up with...
This ornament is one whole cork with a rustic jingle bell on a red ribbon. I used red buttons on the top with a spare part from a Dollar Store ornament I took apart. |
I liked the grape graphic on the side of this one. I added a shiny jingle bell on a piece of jute and used just one button up top. |
I then started playing around trying to come up with something a little more outrageous. Plus it was late at night and I was tired and a little punchy. Here is what I came up with...
I attached a red ribbon to his back using a little eye screw from a picture hanging kit. |
At this point, I thought to myself that using corks in a tablescape could be pretty nifty. I wanted something quick and easy to show you. Why not a place card holder? Here is what I came up with...
I fashioned this place card holder out of two whole corks, a twig from a bush in my backyard (not kidding) and fresh greens that the Christmas tree lot guy let me pick up off the cutting floor. |
These cork coasters were very easy to make. The toughest part for me was the cutting. If you have a stronger person around, enlist their help. Here is who I made them...
Cut the cork lengthwise. You will need 4 corks per coaster. |
Cut a piece of sheet cork about 3 inches by 3 inches |
Put a thick layer of glue on the sheet cork. I actually made it thicker than this picture above. |
I arranged the corks in a herringbone pattern, using hot glue to re-enforce. I cleaned up the hot glue that you can see in the image above. |
After making a set of four, I packaged them together using a plaid ribbon and some fresh greens. |
Hope some of these ideas inspired something new for you today!
Don't forget to come back tomorrow for my
Day 10 of
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