Crafty Reuse: Ten Projects for Old Wine Corks

If you’re anything like me, you tend to hoard things that look like they may be useful later: empty thread spools, glass jars, bottle caps, and those ubiquitous wine corks.

[Creative Commons photo by Claudio Matsuoka]

I’ve got a big bowl of corks in the kitchen that’s mocking me. They dare me to find a project to use them up. Well the joke’s on you, little corks! I didn’t just find one way to turn you into something new. I found ten.

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1. Make your next party fancy with wine cork place card holders! Just cut a small slit into each cork and slide the place card right in. Bonus points if the place cards are made from reused material, too. Maybe discarded cereal boxes?
2. Glue slices of cork to the bottom of your flowerpots to keep them from scratching the floor or your deck and give any moisture a place to go!
3. You can slice the cork into rounds that would work wonderfully as beads for a necklace or bracelet!
4. Make a trivet! All you need is a wooden frame, a bunch of corks, and glue!
5. Similar to the trivet, a cork board is a good project if you have a big collection of corks. Peter Beardsley made a really cool cork board, and you can see the steps on his Flickr! (Creative Commons photo)
   
6. In the Garden. Put slices of cork into the blender. It makes a great mulch and helps your garden hold on to water.
7. Corks make great stamps! Check out Elaine’s awesome cork stamps. (Creative Commons photo):
   
8. Design Sponge has a different take on the wine cork trivet. It looks a bit more labor-intensive, but the results are so delicate!
9. I know, we just made it through the holidays, but I couldn’t resist this awesome tutorial for making wine cork Christmas ornaments over at Indie Fixx!
10. Do you have a ton of old corks that need a new life? You can slice those suckers in half lengthwise and attach them to the wall along the floor or at waist height to make a cork chair rail!

Take that, bowl of corks! Maybe you’ll think twice before taunting me again.

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