Wine Cork Board

When the beau and I booked our wedding venue, the owner was gracious enough to give us a massive bag of unused wine corks! For months I tossed around wine cork craft ideas, trying to decide how to incorporate them into our wedding. A couple of weeks ago, we were driving home from brunch when out the window I spotted an old, wooden frame at a neighbor's garage sale. I knew just what to do with it!

First, I detached one side of the wire hang on the back of the frame just to get it out of the way. Then, I attached a trimmed down piece of poster board, gently hammering in small nails every few inches all the way around the back of the frame. I glued the wine corks in rows to fill the frame. It's near impossible to find a frame that will fit the exact measurements of your corks, so either cut down corks to finish off your rows or, the much easier option, find a way to cover the gap. I used burlap and lace to create a runner around the end where the corks didn't fill the frame and topped it off with a bow in the corner.

I'm not sure exactly how I'll implement the cork board into my wedding decor just yet, but I'm absolutely in love with it!

Wine Cork Birdhouse

Sometimes I get these bursts of creative energy, usually after perusing the internet and shouting out, "That costs how much?! I could make that!" Sometimes I can, sometimes I can't, but oh how I have fun trying.

My latest crafty venture was this wine cork birdhouse! My grandmother collects birdhouses, which are mostly displayed along her wraparound porch. All the family will be gathering Sunday to celebrate her birthday, so I thought this would be a fun little gift to bring along. I'm wishing I'd included some sort of wire hang for it, but she mostly places them on the porch alongside her flower beds, so I suppose it's just fine without.

Supplies:

Bag of assorted moss by Ashland

Two 6x6 wood squares by Art Minds

45 wine corks and 1 champagne cork

Hot glue gun

Instructions:

- Line up the corks next to the bottom wood square before you start gluing.

- Try to keep the glue lines toward the inside so it won't squish out and become visible.

- Glue bottom row of corks to wood square, reinforce with extra glue on the inside.

- Leave space for a door on the front.

- Glue second row of corks to first row of corks, reinforce with extra glue on the inside.

- Glue three corks laying down in the doorway as a perch.

- Glue second wood square to the top of the birdhouse.

- Glue champagne cork chimney onto roof.

- Glue as much moss as you'd like on the roof, allowing some to hang down slightly to cover any gaps where the roof wood square is not flush with the corks (this will happen since they're not all going to be the exact same size).