I wonder what Martha Stewart does with all of her wine corks? I have kept a limit on the decorative crafty-busy-hands-happy-heart cork projects in my house, but I am still hanging on to corks. Why? Some of them tell stories of wines during great events in my life - - memories.On my kitchen island, I keep a vintage blue canning jar to hold the corks of many past opened bottles of wine. Eventually, when the jar gets full, they go into a box to start over. So far, out of the box has come a few kitchen cork trivits glued in the shape of grape clusters and one wine cork bulletin board displaying several local Walla Walla wine corks, as well as corks from memorable wine events.
While web surfing arts and crafts, I discovered a world of cork crafting beyond my imagination and the majority of the projects I will never do. There are also the handy and useful tips such as mix separated corks into your garden mulch to help keep soil moist longer or start a fire with them. Soak wine corks in a glass jar of mineral spirits - toss two or three of them in the fireplace or grill and you will get a fire going in no time. Use corks for fixing bathroom and kitchen plumbing leaks. Lose an earring backing - cut out a piece of wine cork to fit.
Dazzle your dinner guests with charger plate covered with corks and matching
cork napkin ties. Drill a hole in the center of a wine cork. Glue in the hole colored 3/16 cording about 12" long and voila - napkin ties for entertaining! Add wine cork place cards - slice a single slit on the opposite side of the cork and it holds a name tag to place on a guest table.
Do you want to make gifts with corks? Make wreaths! Birdhouses! Christmas
ornaments - angels, reindeer and Santas! Fashionable houte couture! Candle decor (see above photo)! 
Make corks a part of your house with cork baseboards. Glue corks on your kitchen wall as a back splash coating them with three coats of polyurethane. Why stop there? Make a whole wall out of corks! Or you can do what I do - - I toss them on the floor and let my cats, Crosby and Nash, bat them around the floor. Cheap cat toy.
3 comments:
Great cat toy, but I hate stepping on them with bare feet... and the dog does a fine job shredding them - you should see her destroy a wooden bung! Thanks for the links to the craft sites - I plan to torture my wife with them...;-)
Funny, I've been hoarding corks for years, yet hadn't thought to write a post about this particular corky quirkiness of mine. I've got old cookie jars and cowboy boots filled with them, always with the thought that someday I would make some artsy-fartsy wallboard or trivet with them. I need to bring those memories out into the open. Or do I? :)
Don't torture the wife too much or you won't get any cork cuff links for Christmas. heh. Winehiker, I think you should get those corks out in the open and memoralize them. Seriously - they make for a great bulletin board.
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