DIY: Recycle Your Corks and Wine Bottles

Don't throw away your old wine bottles and corks!  Recycle them into something new to be used or displayed. 

This post was inspired after drinking a truly horrible bottle of wine over the weekend.  I partially blame myself for not chilling it first, but it was so bad that my friends and I cut it with ginger ale and it was STILL awful.  After choking some of it down I said "The only thing this bottle is good for is I get to put the cork on display".  Hence, today's post.   

Here is a pic of a wine bottle by my kitchen sink.  I just added a spout and keep my dish detergent in it.  This way I have it convenient for use and it's not an eyesore to keep out on the counter!

Or you can soak off the labels and turn them into planters:

Source:  Design Sponge

Or use a glass cutter to cut them down and stick a candle in them to be a candle holder, or cut them down to cover tea lights:

Source: The Green Head

Don't forget that bottles come in all colors so you could collect different sizes and shapes of blue glass bottles for display.  You could paint the bottles and/or dip them in glitter or anything you want for your own special purpose!  Spray painting would be easiest.

Another random idea I just had.  Get different furniture knobs and glue them into the tops of the bottles.  Put them back on your wine rack for a fun display. 

Here's some more great ideas for bottles:

Source:  Taste of Home

Perfect for the season

Souce:  Nap Time Crafts blog

Mix wine with twine!

Source:  Crave/Create blog

On to the Corks....

Do a cork collection!  I've been collecting corks for about a year now and have filled a vase on one of my shelves with them.  I have some friends that have a wide-mouthed basket on their coffee table they keep theirs in for display as well. 

Bonus:  Instead of stacking just books for display, try old cigar boxes.  I got the ones pictured here at a flea market for just $4!

Now that this vase is full, I'm going to start collecting to do some art projects with my leftovers.  There is so much to do with them!  You can paint them, you could soak them in water with some food coloring and they'll absorb the color so that they are tinted.  You can glue them to cardboard, mdf or wood and make your own corkboard.  Here are some cute cork ideas:

Source:  Etsy.com via 4 Eyes and Ears' shop

Source:  I Can Find the Time blog

I love that they used a glaze or poly to make these shiny

Source:  Project Rowhouse blog

Love the scale, frame and placement of this board

Source:  Marsh-Madness blog

Source:  Crafty Nest

So many things you could do!  Best part is - you get to drink wine to get these great projects started. *wink.  Until next time...



DIY: Repurposed Corkboard

Greetings!  I'm starting to get a great running list of DIY ideas for posts!  Let me know if you want me to try anything out for ya!

So, I've been dealing with this oversized corkboard of my husband's for years.  It's moved to three different houses and two cities with us over the years and we've never actually used it.  It's 24X36 inches which isn't that big in the scheme of things, but it's just too big for a corkboard where we needed it.  Well, now that we are moved into the new house I needed something for the laundry room for coupons, and Joe really wanted the corkboard up by the desk (I'm not sure why).  So as I stared at it Sunday morning, I made the decision to saw it in half, dress them up, and make into two more manageable corkboards and then we'd have one for each space!

I checked at Hobby Lobby today and they have multiple sizes of corkboard there, so you might be able to just skip over the steps regarding sawing the board in half.  Rule:  Never buy ANYTHING at Hobby Lobby unless it's on sale.  You can check the weekly flyers online.  At least once each month every item will go on sale. 

Joe was soundly sleeping until I started the project.  This included me going in and out the back door twenty times while gathering supplies which in turn sounded the door chime for our house alarm twenty times.  Since we have a keypad in the bedroom, Joe woke up.  Let me mention that after he griped about being woken up and I went outside and began using the saw - that did not wake the man up!  I had both dogs howling and Evelyn crying when I used it, but Joe slept like a baby.  Sorry that triple door chime is so disturbing. 

Anyway, on to the project.  Pretty simple stuff.  I believe in all of you and know you can do it!  No fear!

Here is a pic of the corkboard before:

In case you have eagle eyes and spotted the picture in the middle of my husband, his cousins, and Shaq (as in Shaquille O'Neal).  Congratulations! You get gold stars.  If you have eyesight like me, I included the original pic below:

Sidenote:  My husband is 6'1".  Shaq is GI-NORMOUS.

Back to the project.  I measured the board and decided to just half it.  So I drew a line down the middle of the back of the board to help guide the saw as I cut.  I don't plan on using the frame, so after I cut it in half I'm going to discard it.

I cut the board outside so I wouldn't get dust in the house, and since I don't have any saw horses I just weighed down one side of the board while I let it overhang to cut.

This is the jigsaw I used.  I checked Home Depot, and they have a comprable one for $33.

Got the board cut in half

Now it's time to bust out the fabric.  I picked a black and cream graphic print.  Lesson learned early on in the project - lay your fabric on the diagonal.  I did not do this.  I should have.  Since fabric has stretch to it, there is no way you are going to get it to lay perfectly in line with the lines of the corkboard. 

I used my new best friend, spray adhesive, to get the fabric to stay in place while I stapled it to the board.  





Spray On Adhesive

 

Fabric



Stapled it to the board.  I used the same size staples, 3/8ths an inch, I did in the post here. 

Staple all the way around and voila!

A beautiful new corkboard to display!

 

Oh, but that's not all!  Let's jazz it up with some nail head trim!  I drew a line on the fabric with chalk about an inch and a half in from the side and just pushed in the nail head trim pieces one by one. 

Warning:  The nail heads will poke out the back of the board.  I took a cardboard box and cut it down to size and just hot glued it to the back of the board so the nails wouldn't scratch up the wall behind it.  I then added a hanging kit and was done!

Finished product!  Turned out just the way I wanted it to.  It's gonna look great about my soon-to-be BM Labrador Blue walls. 

Now I have a place to keep all my coupons instead of them just laying on the counter where they became part of the "out of sight, out of mind" principle.  Now, as I'm running out the back door to run errands I can look to see if I need to take anything with me.  Yay!