Sunday, March 11, 2012

Put a Cork In It Part II - Wine Cork Ornaments


It's truly never too early to think of Christmas.  It's March and I am well under way for Christmas Fair season 2012!  Here are my wine cork Christmas ornaments.  You could use them as ornaments or you could use them as wine bottle decoration when you bring a bottle of wine to a party.  The possibilities are endless; as are the items you can use to decorate.  Don't just do what I do, do whatever you like!  I plan on selling these for $2-3 each, depending upon the complication of them.  This featured set is $2 for each.   I find it funny how "trendy" wine corks are right now.  You can make anything you see that you like yourself.  YOU DONT NEED TO PAY EXORBITANT PRICES!  I can't believe what some places charge for items with corks.

You will need a smaller, delicate rotary drill.  I got mine as a gift for Christmas (many thanks to my father in law) - but you can get these at hardware shops, or even some department stores.

You will need a cording or jewelry wire.  I used mostly jewelry wire for these.  The cording is slightly harder to fit in the hole, so you would want a slightly larger drill bit.  Then, other than the corks, you will need embellishments.  I used a combination of items...I talk more about that down below.


 First, I drilled holes in each of the corks I was planning on using.  I used the smallest bit I had.  The second up from that one would be one to use with your ribbon cording.
 I had saved acorn tops while hiking for various projects...these worked out super cute on top of a couple corks!  I was able to drill through the top of them with the same drill bit I used for the corks.  I also used holiday buttons.  I used some hemp cording for one ornament as well.  Like I said possibilities are endless.
 For decoration around the center of the wine cork, you can use the jewelry wire and small beads to make some really intricate and pretty looking ornaments.  (You may convince others you spent much longer on this than you actually did).  I used a combination of small beads, and charms...all of which I found in the jewelry section of the craft store.
 It is very hard to explain how to do this in writing.  I do promise to do a video in the near future as I work to perfect that on my iphone...but for now...I just have my simple and silly photos.  You will want to fold whatever you are using as your base hanging material (ribbon, wire, etc) in half, and fit that through the middle of the cork hole you have drilled.  For decorating the middle/body of the cork, you will want to just put on piece of jewelry wire through the middle, and stick it in the side of the cork to secure. As you bead, you will want to make a tiny knot every 1/4 inch or so, to keep your beads where you want them.


Honestly, this is a project just to fool around with and come up with your own style and taste!  I plan on doing more in another blog post....I will have a video, and I will show how to get really complicated with multiple corks!  For now, here is your start!  Save those corks!!  Good luck!

3 comments:

  1. Thank you Dana! You run a blog about my other passion - all things retro and mod! I started following you after you posted this :) Do you go to Retro Renovation, too?

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  2. These are SUPER CUTE! You have Inspired me!

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