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5 Ways to Upcycle a Night of Binge Drinking

Anna is back! She’s the DIY guru over at Bargainmoose.ca, and she’s once again come up with some pretty nifty ways to use up leftover household items. This time, it’s all about wine corks! And since we all know that the amount of wine we consume is in direct relation to the age of our kids (and how many more reasons they give us to drink), I’d say you’ve got a few of these hanging around your kitchen :)

(Well deserved plug for Anna: Bargainmoose is a site for Canadian coupon codes, discounts and shopping deals. She has great “Exmoosive” deals that you’ll love!)

Without further ado, she gives us…

For those of us who like a little glass of grape juice in the evenings, we find that there might be quite a lot of leftover wine corks. Don’t trash them – save them up and get crafty!

1. Wine Cork Boards

The most simple thing to do with your leftover wine corks is to make a cork board. The board has many uses, from a simple board to pin papers and notes to, or even a jewellery hanger. There’s a pretty good tutorial for this on Howstuffworks. However, you can deviate from the tutorial by arranging the corks in many different patterns, or even putting the corks in a stunning frame, as you can see in the image above from 4EyesAndEars.

2. Wine Cork Letters

Making letters or initials out of wine corks can make a really nice point of interest for a wall. Here at Diyswensonstyle, you can see how the finished craft should look. These would be a great idea to spell out a name in a child’s nursery. You could even go one step further and paint each cork in different colours, making a visually stunning piece. (Image credit to Hmhdesigns)

3. Wine Cork Hanging Decoration

Here on Thepartydress, they’ve come up with a novel idea for a hanging decoration, a sphere made from the leftover wine corks. As they say, it could make a really great idea as a decoration for your cocktail party! It’s a  simple polystyrene ball, and loads of corks. :)

4. Wine Cork Candle Holder

Over on Twotwenty-one.com, Chelsea has made a funky candle holder. While this one isn’t as much a craft, it’s more of a cute display method for the leftover wine corks – it still looks great.

5. Wine Cork Sculptures

If you’re a bit more creatively inclined, you could even construct sculptures or toys from the leftover wine corks. There’s a great example of this here on Lilblueboo where they’ve made a wine cork sculpture in the shape of a giraffe! It’s a mish-mash of wire hangers, duct tape, glue and corks. Looks super!

Have you seen any other good tutorials or ideas of things to do with leftover wine corks?

22 Responses to “5 Ways to Upcycle a Night of Binge Drinking”

  1. Nancy
    September 14, 2012 at 7:48 am #

    I saw a craft to do in the Toronto Sun newspaper with corks. Cut the in half lengthways, and with a glue gun, attach them to cork tile to make a mat to place hot dishes on.

    • Lena
      September 14, 2012 at 7:08 pm #

      Amazing! It makes perfect sense, because I have two cork trivets! Thanks for sharing :)

  2. Kat E.
    September 14, 2012 at 2:21 pm #

    Neat! I read a magazine article where a couple did a cork floor for their bathroom out of their collected wine corks (sliced into circles) :)

    • Lena
      September 14, 2012 at 7:08 pm #

      OOOH – how unique! They must have been real winos to cover an entire floor, though, LOL

  3. Kyla @ Mommy's Weird
    September 14, 2012 at 3:11 pm #

    This is so awesome. Beyond awesome!

    • Lena
      September 14, 2012 at 7:08 pm #

      Doesn’t Anna present some awesome ideas?

  4. Tricha Fraser
    September 14, 2012 at 3:19 pm #

    My mother-in-law made wine cork wreaths and gave one to us a few Christmases ago. They were pretty neat.

    • Lena
      September 14, 2012 at 7:09 pm #

      Is that ever original! Did she decorate them as well, or was is just the corks?

      • Tricha Fraser
        September 15, 2012 at 7:27 pm #

        Actually they were nicely decorated with Christmasy things, little golden bells and fake hollies and berries and pinecones. When I first got it, my first thought was, my, do they ever drink alot!. But I am sure they collected the corks over the years.

        • Lena
          September 15, 2012 at 7:34 pm #

          Hahaha I’d be thinking the same thing – but I just realized that you could probably drop into your favourite restaurant and take a handful off them too :) Sounds pretty fabulous!

    • Bargainmoose
      September 15, 2012 at 12:02 pm #

      That sounds novel, I like the idea :)

  5. Victoria Ess
    September 15, 2012 at 1:46 am #

    My favourite is the “cork board” jewelry organizer.

    • Lena
      September 15, 2012 at 7:33 pm #

      I love that one too, Victoria!

  6. Teresa M.
    September 17, 2012 at 12:20 am #

    In Victoria, BC there was a house made completely out of bottles…no corks though. It was a bit of a oddity and eventuI believe that the Government bought the land to widen the highway. It was called the Glass Castle.

    • Lena
      September 17, 2012 at 6:19 am #

      Teresa, thanks so much for letting me know about this! I Googled it and checked out pictures… WOW!!

  7. Tania Smith
    September 17, 2012 at 10:28 am #

    Very cool! I am going to try the wine cork board. I mean, if I can find enough corks. :)

    • Lena
      September 21, 2012 at 9:18 pm #

      Haha Tania good luck to you!

  8. Tammy
    September 27, 2012 at 12:26 pm #

    These ideas are awesome, I love the idea for the earrings.May put my hubby to work to do this :P

  9. Jennifer k
    October 24, 2012 at 9:05 pm #

    Definitely neat ideas.

  10. Kaitlin M
    November 12, 2012 at 7:37 pm #

    This is really interesting. My mother has been collecting corks for quite a while. It would be great to find something to do with them.

  11. Riley
    January 22, 2013 at 1:41 pm #

    I haven’t had a cork in a while (most of my choice wines use screw tops) but these projects are so cute!

  12. Debbie Bashford
    April 13, 2013 at 8:39 am #

    cute ideas but all I can think is man I wouldn’t want to have to dust it

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