Project: Cork Heart

Project: Cork Heart

Inspiration: Images like these online. I really liked the second one, where the colors come naturally from wine. The idea is to save the corks from all the wine served at your wedding and to create it with those. I thought this was awesome, but I'd rather not have one more thing to worry about on the day of the wedding (i.e., "are they collecting the corks?") and another project to do after. I decided to make something beforehand that I could use as a decoration for the ceremony and in our home afterward.

Cost/Materials: Lots of corks, to start! If you have a huge collection of corks, that's great. If you don't, buy 'em cheap. I got a bag of 100 at Michaels. They were originally $20, but I waited until they went on sale and used a coupon, so I think I got them for around $7. I then doubled the amount of corks by cutting them all in half, because the "height" of them didn't really matter to me for this project. You also need some acrylic paint in whatever color(s) you want, and I'd recommend laying out newspaper or paper towels since corks might tip over on your workspace as they're drying. Lastly, you need a canvas or whatever surface you want to create the art on, and a hot glue gun. I got an inexpensive burlap canvas, but I think this would also look great on a standard white painting canvas to really help the letters pop.

How I Did It: First thing I did after cutting the corks in half was to put them in the basic heart shape. Then I was able to more accurately make decisions as I sectioned off how many would be in the truest yellow, how many in the yellow with a tiny bit of pink, equal parts pink and yellow, etc., until I got all the way up to the true coral pink. I only used two acrylic paints to create all these colors; just experiment with mixing! I did this on plastic plates with a plastic fork so I could dispose of the mess easily after. I starting dipping the corks in, patting them off a little on a paper towel if they picked up too much paint, and then putting them upright to dry. After they were dry (overnight), I arranged them on the canvas. This was a big old pain. I'm not sure how the people who created the ones in my inspiration pictures did it, but I was not able to get them to all smush together and look good, so I decided to space them out, somewhat evenly, into the heart shape. I hot glued them down, making sure to get plenty of glue on the whole backside of the cork, although not too much so that it was oozing out the sides when pressed down. Once this was all done I painted a phrase at the bottom. It took some patience to get the painting clear because the burlap was such a rough surface. Since it was dark, I also wasn't really able to pencil the writing on beforehand and then paint over it. Free-handing it was rough. If anyone knows how I could have better transferred the words before painting them, let me know!

The Outcome: I am happy with it. Like I mentioned above, I wish the writing was a little better, but what can you do... I took a risk!

Lessons Learned/Tips: I'd recommend white canvas for the back, if only to make it easier to stencil your plan onto the background before gluing/painting.

Would I Do It Again: I have plenty of corks leftover to maybe make something similar in the future, and it was simple enough! I'd maybe simplify even more by just doing a paper background within a shadow box or something like that. We'll see!

Check out my mom, helping me crank things out, burning the midnight oil! Thanks, Momma!