Why would anyone bother to save the wine corks, you might ask. Well, because it’s easy and because they can potentially be used in a lot of creative and interesting DIY projects and wine cork crafts. Repurposing wine corks is one of the easiest things you could do and it’s typically super fun to do so. Let’s have a look at some of these crafts and see if any of them inspires you.
What are Some Project Ideas for Wine Cork Crafts?
Before you begin, you may be wondering what type of crafts you can make with wine corks. The options are honestly endless, but there are some crafts that are easier to make than others.
The most popular wine cork crafts are as follows:
- Drink Coasters
- Bird Houses
- Wall Art
- Photo Holder
- Candle Accessories
- Bird Houses
- Message Board
- Place Card Holder
- Jewelry Organizer
- A Holiday Wreath
Of course, these aren’t all the options, and you’ll likely find several wine cork crafts on this list you want to make. Thus, you should start saving your wine corks right away.
How to Prepare Wine Corks for Crafts
Using wine corks for crafts is good for the environment as you are repurposing something you otherwise wouldn’t use. There’s only one problem with this plan, and this is preparing your corks for the craft so they are clean and easy to use.
Corks can carry bacteria, and a special type of mold found in wine bottles. They can also be very difficult to work with in their original form. For this reason, you will always want to clean your corks before you make crafts, and you may want to consider softening them as well.
How to Soften a Wine Cork for Crafts
Cleaning and softening your corks can be done in a couple of different ways.
Steam Your Corks
Steaming corks Is easy if you have a steamer because you can simply fill it halfway with corks and place it in a pot of boiling water. For those without a steamer, a colander will work just as well.
Ensure that the corks do not come in contact with the water as they steam. Let them stay there for 10 minutes. Then remove them from the heat and let them cool before you attempt to handle them.
Boil Your Corks
The second method to clean and soften your corks is by boiling them. For this method you will place the corks in boiling water and leave them for ten minutes.
With this method, the corks will absorb water causing them to swell. Although they will return to their normal size, this can affect the integrity of the cork, which is why it is recommended to steam rather than boil corks.
How to Clean Wine Corks for Crafts
Depending on the craft you are making, you may not need to soften your corks, and would rather them remain more rigid and firm. If this is the case, you will not want to boil or steam your corks.
Instead, you can clean your corks quickly and easily by placing them in a bucket of warm water with a small amount of hydrogen peroxide. Any germs on the corks will not survive with this method, and the corks can be removed after a minute, meaning they will not have time to soften too much in the water as they do in the other methods.
How to Cut the Corks for Wine Cork Crafts
Cutting your corks can be difficult, as they are cylindrical and shape and may try to roll away. There are a couple different things you can do to prevent this from happening. You should also soften your corks before you attempt to cut them.
Method 1: Use a Barrier
Take two pieces of plywood, or some other hard materials that you don’t mind if they are damaged, and place them on either side of the cork to keep it in place as you cut.
Method 2: Use Clamps
Wood clamps also work great as cork clamps. Just be aware that it is possible that the knife you are using could damage the surface you are cutting the cork on. Thus you should always place a cutting board beneath your clamped cork, or cut your corks on a table specifically outfitted for wood cutting.
Method 3: Cut Your Corks on End
Some corks are flat enough that you can stand them on end to cut them. This is more difficult to do than to cut them lying down, but it can be done—especially when you buy craft store corks that are more universal in shape and size.
How to Make Wine Cork Crafts
Now that your corks are cleaned, softened, and cut, it’s time to look at the step by step instructions of how you will make crafts with corks.
Step 1: Find the Craft You Want to Make
Before starting, you will want to have the craft you want to make on hand. Save the page in your internet browser, or consider printing it out.
Step 2: Gather the Materials for Your Wine Cork Crafts
Most crafts require more than just wine corks. Take the time to gather the extra materials, such as glue, paint, ribbon, and whatever else you may need. It is always worthwhile to buy a little extra in case there are any mistakes along the way.
Step 3: Cover the Surface to Prepare to Make Wine Cork Crafts
Since wine cork crafts typically require gluing or painting, you will want to protect your work surface. You can do this using paper, a table cloth, or a plastic tarp for larger projects.
Step 4: Create Your Wine Cork Crafts Craft
You are all set to begin. Follow the directions of the craft you have chosen, and in no time at all, you will have an awesome wine cork craft.
Where to Buy Corks for Wine Cork Crafts
Want to make a wine cork craft but can’t seem to drink enough wine to create the amount of corks you need? Don’t panic, as many craft stores, as well as online retailers like Amazon, sell wine corks that are specifically for crafts.
These corks are typically closer to the same size, and more tough that wine corks from wine bottles. Therefore they are both easier, and more difficult to work with.
Alternatively, for those who don’t want to purchase their wine corks, you could also ask your family and friends to start saving theirs as well, then make a craft after you collect the corks from them.
Fun DIY Projects Using Your Old Wine Corks
1. Spooky Wine Stoppers
For this little project, you don’t even have to repurpose the wine corks. They can still be used for the same purpose, they’ll just look a little different.
The idea is to give them a Halloween-inspired makeover by adding little Jack-o-lanterns made of plastic on top of each cork and turning them into spooky wine stoppers. It’s a fun and simple project that can be done by the kids as well.
2. A Cork Trivet
If you by any chance have a bunch of wine corks and a desire to make something out of them, an idea can be to craft a cork trivet like the one featured on DIYs. For this, you’ll first have to cut each cork in half.
A total of 35 corks were used in this particular case. After they were cut in half, they were all arranged in a hexagon shape and glued together, then aluminum foil tape was added around the edge.
3. A Cork Monogram
In case you’re in the mood to make something decorative, how about a cork monogram? Depending on the letter you choose, you’ll have to figure out how many corks you’re going to need for this project. this lovely M featured on diys uses a total of 115 corks for example.
The rest of the supplies needed for this project include a hot glue gun, acrylic craft paint in any colors you like, a paintbrush, and a letter printout.
4. DIY Champagne Cork Place Card Holders
Champagne corks are perfect for making place cardholders because of their shape and the fact that they’re more sturdy and stable compared to wine corks. To turn them into place card holders all you need to do is paint them and then cut a little slit into the top of each one so you can insert the card in there.
You can use metallic spray paint to make them look stylish and elegant but you can also choose to decorate them in other ways. Check out A Coastal Bride for more details.
5. A Candle Ornament for Your Christmas Tree
A creative mind can find all sorts of interesting uses for something as simple and as basic as a wine cork. For example, there’s a little project idea on crayonsandcravings that shows how a cork can be used to make a candle ornament for the Christmas tree.
It’s a really simple and cute project for which you need a few supplies such as yellow pipe cleaners, red ribbon, a thin pine garland, and red craft foam.
6. Tiny Cacti Planters
Here’s a really cute little project that you can make with wine corks: tiny cacti planters. You can find all the details about this on Shine Crafts and it’s all quite simple and straightforward.
You need a few things for this such as white cardstock, wine corks, clear tape, and sketch pens in green, pink, and black. There’s probably a bunch more different ways in which you could make something like this so have fun exploring.
7. DIY Wine Corks Centerpiece
Wine corks themselves can look quite nice, especially when you have a bunch of them together. You can take a few and put them in clear glass containers like jars or vases. Add some string lights in there so there’s also a bit of lighting involved and these can be your new table centerpieces.
They could also look nice as decorations on shelves, nightstands, or desks. Check out kraftmint to see how they’re made.
8. Cork DIY Kitchen Utensil Holder
Because wine corks look rather nice and interesting as they are, without the need to paint or change them in any way, you can use them as decorations and supplies for a lot of DIY crafts and projects. One idea is to take an empty metal can and glue a bunch of wine corks onto it so the metal is all hidden.
You can then use this as a storage container, a vase, a planter, or a utensil holder in the kitchen. It’s a little something that we found on amagicalmess.
9. Wine Cork Flower Wreath
We love wreaths and all the quirky ways in which they can be made. It’s no surprise that wine corks can also be used to make beautiful and interesting wreaths. Of course, if you want to try this project yourself, you’re going to need a whole lot of wine corks.
Group them up into sets of five and glue them together to make flowers. Paint them and decorate them, then glue them all onto a circular wreath from which you can make out of plywood or thick cardboard. More details can be found on designimprovised.
10. Wine Cork Pumpkin
You can also arrange a bunch of wine corks in such a way that they resemble a pumpkin. You can make wine cork pumpkins of different shapes and sizes and use them as decorations around the house.
It’s a nice project for fall or Halloween specifically and there are lots of different ways in which you can personalize your pumpkins if you want to. Find out the main details of the project on alwaystheholidays.
10. Stylish Wine Cork Crafts Toppers
This super simple project basically transforms simple wine corks into stylish wine stoppers. The idea is very simple. You take a wine cork, you drill a hole into it from the top, then you insert a decorative knob into the drilled hole.
This puts a cute top on the cork and makes it not just better looking but easier to use as well. You can pretty much use any knob you like for this so pay a visit to your local hardware store and check out the stock. Head over to craftsbycourtney for more details.
11. Mini Christmas Tree Ornaments
All you really need to make these cute Christmas tree ornaments are wine corks, twine, and a glue gun. Each ornament resembles a miniature Christmas tree and is made out of 11 wine corks, one for the trunk and the rest for the canopy.
To make the design more interesting you could paint the corks or decorate them in other ways. In any case, all the necessary details about this simple craft can be found on dearcrissy.
12. Sparkling Wine Cork Star Ornament
This beautiful star ornament featured on sustainmycrafthabit is also made out of recycled wine corks and it looks amazing. It was made using the following supplies: 103 wine corks, a glue gun, white acrylic paint, matte mod podge, glitter, and a paintbrush.
It’s not a difficult project but it does take a bit of time and patience in order to get it right. Of course, if you want to you can swap the white paint with a different color.
13. DIY Wine Cork Crafts Decorations
Wine corks can also be used to decorate various existing items like a frame for example. For instance, if you have a framed mirror or a painting or picture you can go ahead and glue a few wine corks onto the frame itself or around it in a pattern in order to give it a simple and effective makeover.
The corks can be painted first if you want to add some color to the design, although their natural look suits them really well. You can check out plasteranddisaster for more inspiration.
14. DIY Wine Cork Corkboard
Corkboards are not typically made out of wine corks but that doesn’t mean this idea won’t work. There’s a nice tutorial on everydaydishes which explains exactly how to make a wine cork corkboard and the result is great.
The frame is actually a repurposed wooden tray in this case and it works out great for this particular project. The corks are glued together and there’s twine all around the edge hiding the gaps in the corners.
15. DIY Cork Christmas Tree
We mentioned before that wine corks can be used to make original Christmas tree decorations so here’s another design idea related to that. This project comes from kj and explains how you can basically make a miniature tree.
Start with a cardboard cone and glue wine corks around the whole surface in layers so you cover it all out. Add ribbon, lights, and everything else you want to make your cork tree look extra pretty and festive.
16. DIY Wine Cork Crafts Reindeer Ornament
Speaking of Christmas tree ornaments, isn’t this tiny reindeer adorable? It’s made of wine corks and it’s just a little something that you can hang up on your tree to give it more character.
You can also display this as a decoration in other places or offer it as a little gift token to someone that you care about. In any case, be sure to check out the tutorial on cmongetcrafty to see how this reindeer is made.
17. Miniature Pine Trees
Another cute Christmas-related idea is to use wine corks to make tiny miniature pine trees. The corks can be cut in half or left whole and they’re basically meant to be the trunks of the trees. The canopies are bits of pine garland which are inserted into the corks.
You can make a few of these and use them as decorations in various different ways. More details about the process and more inspiring ideas can be found on livelaughrowe.
18. Cute Cork Crafts Plant Markers
You can also repurpose a few wine corks and make cute plant markers out of them for your garden or planters. Just go ahead and take a chopstick or skewer, insert it into the bottom of a wine cork and then write something on the cork with a sharpie pen. You can also paint the chopstick and even the cork if you want to.
These little markers are useful for easily identifying each plant or herb. Check out allputtogether for a quick tutorial.
19. Monogram Cork Crafts Earrings
Have you ever considered making some jewelry out of wine corks? It may sound strange but it’s possible and quite easy actually. These monogram earrings featured on savedbylovecreations are a cute example.
The hardest part about this is cutting the wine cork into slices and making them flat and even. Once you have these, you can go ahead and paint and decorate them, then attach them to the earrings.
20. A Cork Heart for Valentine’s Day
Here’s a little something that you can make for Valentine’s Day, although it’s not necessarily for one particular occasion only. This is a cork heart that can be used as a decoration or centerpiece. To make it, all you need is a piece of paper, a pencil, some wine corks, and glue.
Draw a heart on the paper, then arrange the corks along the lines and glue them together. The project is explained on sandandsisal and there are plenty of different ways in which it can be personalized.
21. A Cork Ball Decoration
This right here is a cork ball, something that you can use as a decoration and have displayed on a shelf, a mantel, up in a Christmas tree, and so on. It’s quite abstract which is why it’s also very versatile.
To make it, start with styrofoam or a paper mache ball. Take some wine corks (around 60) and a hot glue gun and attach them to the ball one by one as explained in the tutorial from sometimes-homemade.
22. DIY Wine Cork Vases
Using wine corks to decorate existing items and accessories is quite easy. One strategy is to glue the corks around the outside of a particular item like a vase for example.
That way you cover up the vase and make it look as if it’s made of wine corks only. That works particularly well with transparent glass vases, as exemplified in this simple tutorial which you can find on designimprovised.
23. Cork Crafts Wall Art
Some projects are on a bigger scale and can require a whole lot of wine corks. One of them is an idea that comes from brit. As you can see here, you can have wine corks arranged in a certain pattern in order to create eye-catching wall art.
A simple option is to make state-shaped cork installations. You might have to cut some of the corks in half in order to get the shape just right.
24. A Chandelier Made from Wine Corks
You can even make more complex things out of wine corks, such as a chandelier for instance. This wine cork chandelier featured on moxandfodder is quite interesting and eye-catching.
There’s no actual light fixture involved in this case and this is only meant to serve as a decoration. However, there are definitely ways in which you can use wine corks to decorate a functional chandelier or a lamp for example.
25. A Wine Cork Bath Mat
One more thing that you can do with wine corks is a bath mat. This is a rather simple and straightforward project but it does require a lot of corks. To make the mat featured on craftynest, 175 corks were used in total.
They were arranged in rows onto a shelf liner and glued together one by one. The rectangular shape makes this project quite easy and if you want to try something different then you might have to adjust the design strategy and the technique used.
26. Wine Cork Keychains
Keychains are a fun little gift to give to friends and family members, and they’ll love receiving one of these quirky wine cork keychains from Fabulessly Frugal. For this project, you’ll just need recycled wine corks, split rings, screw eyes, and clear craft glue. From there, you can paint or decorate the wine cork keychains to personalize them for whoever you are going to give them to. They are an easy way to stop any confusion happening over keys in your home as well.
27. DIY Wine Cork Crafts Tic Tac Toe Game
This has to be one of the most fun projects on our list today, and kids will absolutely love playing this DIY tic tac toe game you create. It’s perfect for the holiday season, thanks to the snowman and reindeer theme. Mollymoo Crafts shows us how to make this fun project, which is super easy to create.
Your kids won’t believe how adorable the pieces are in this game, and they’ll be impressed with your creativity and skill this Christmas season.
28. Wine Cork Crafts Jewelry Organizer
For anyone who is always losing necklaces and bracelets in their closet or bedroom, this wine cork jewelry organizer is the ideal solution. Kelly Leigh Creates shares this DIY project, which makes a fun organizer that also creates a piece of modern art to add to your walls.
The frame of the organizer can be painted in any color you like, and apart from that, you just need mug hooks and a hot glue gun to get started. Before gluing everything down, just ensure you have enough wine corks to fill the frame.
29. Turn Your Corks Into Candles
You won’t believe this project which takes your old wine corks and reuses them to create candles. A Subtle Revelry offers us this two-step project, which will involve very little time or hassle to create.
After collecting your wine corks, you’ll then soak them in a capped mason jar that is filled with acetone alcohol. After a week, you’ll need to leave them to fully dry before using them as a candle for the first time.
30. Canape Wine Cork Crafts Knife Handles
This canape knife handles from Yarni Gras take two old items that you might otherwise throw away and put them together to create a new set of rustic canape knives. If you have any old canape knives that have faded or damaged handles, this is a good way of giving them a new lease of life.
Instead of putting them in the trash, you’ll crack the handle off and replace them with the wine cork.
Wine Cork Crafts FAQS
Do Wine Cork Crafts Sell?
Depending on what craft you make with your wine corks, it is possible to sell them on an online craft marketplace. To be able to sell your wine cork crafts, you will want to be sure the corks are in excellent condition and properly cleaned before you craft with them.
Can You Use Regular Glue for Wine Cork Crafts?
While regular glue like Elmer’s glue will hold wine corks together, if you are making a project that you want to last a long time, you should use a water proof glue like gorilla glue instead. This will extend the life of your craft.
Can I Use Wood Glue on Cork Crafts?
Yes, wood glue works perfectly with wine cork projects. It is recommended that you use a brush to apply wood glue to corks.
Can You Use Corks Sold in Stores for Wine?
The corks sold in a craft store will be unlikely to fit your wine bottle. But if for some reason they do, there is no reason not to use a craft cork for a bottle of wine. It is best to always use the original wine cork, or a proper wine stopper though, as this will be easier to remove and replace.
Is it Easy to Soften Corks for Crafts?
It is very easy to soften wine corks that come from wine bottles for crafts. Corks that are bought in craft stores however, are generally more rigid and difficult to soften.
All of these easy crafts using wine corks will barely cost you anything to create and yet will add a fun splash of decoration to any room in your home. Reusing something that would otherwise go in the trash always gives you a sense of satisfaction. Kids and teens will love getting involved in some of these crafts, and you can paint or decorate wine corks to fit the various seasons throughout the year. Whichever one of these ideas you try first, we hope you have fun doing these DIY wine cork projects this year.
The post Some of Easiest And Coolest Wine Cork Crafts That You Can Do appeared first on Home Decorating Trends - Homedit.