I come from a family where we "waste not, want not" and if we can't recycle something, we try to find another way to reuse it. Wine corks is one of those things where we try to find other uses.
My mom has made a wine cork trivet...
and a wine cork serving tray.
My sister-in-law used some to make wine cork reindeer several years back...
and last year it was our turn to use some to make wine cork Christmas Tree ornaments.
There are very few supplies needed. Wine corks (obviously), thin ribbon (we used yellow to match the "star"), green, yellow, and brown acrylic paint, paper plates, hot glue gun, and a serrated knife.
The first step is to enlist two very eager helpers to dip the two ends of the corks in green paint. I poured a small amount of paint in paper plates and let them have at it. Also, if you're having kids do paint projects like this, I highly recommend using an old shower curtain on the floor.
I used two shades of green just to mix things up a bit. At first I thought I would use the two colors per tree but I ended up not liking how that looked and kept each tree one color. (E looks so young here even though it was only last year and K's hair has grown a TON since then!)
After the girls dipped each cork in the green, brown or yellow paint, I decided that whole corks would be too big for an ornament so I used a serrated knife to cut them in half. Unfortunately that meant that I had to re-dip the cut sides but it goes really fast so I wasn't too worried about it.
To assemble the ornaments I used hot glue and started from the bottom. Before gluing the top star on I wrapped a short piece of ribbon around it and then hot glued it to the top before tying it in a knot.
Before giving these to the grandparents and teachers, I wrote the year on the star in permanent marker and the girls' names on the back.
If I have time this year I want to make these tabletop versions. I have enough corks left to make one large and two little ones.
Maybe someday we'll have enough to make this:
That's a lot of wine!
Take it easy
~J
The first step is to enlist two very eager helpers to dip the two ends of the corks in green paint. I poured a small amount of paint in paper plates and let them have at it. Also, if you're having kids do paint projects like this, I highly recommend using an old shower curtain on the floor.
I used two shades of green just to mix things up a bit. At first I thought I would use the two colors per tree but I ended up not liking how that looked and kept each tree one color. (E looks so young here even though it was only last year and K's hair has grown a TON since then!)
After the girls dipped each cork in the green, brown or yellow paint, I decided that whole corks would be too big for an ornament so I used a serrated knife to cut them in half. Unfortunately that meant that I had to re-dip the cut sides but it goes really fast so I wasn't too worried about it.
To assemble the ornaments I used hot glue and started from the bottom. Before gluing the top star on I wrapped a short piece of ribbon around it and then hot glued it to the top before tying it in a knot.
Before giving these to the grandparents and teachers, I wrote the year on the star in permanent marker and the girls' names on the back.
If I have time this year I want to make these tabletop versions. I have enough corks left to make one large and two little ones.
Maybe someday we'll have enough to make this:
Take it easy
~J
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