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!

Project: Cork Letter Banners

Project: Cork Letter Banners

Inspiration: I loved the quote and general look of this "We've Decided on Forever" banner, found somewhere in the Pinterest-verse. I knew I'd try to make something, but wasn't sure how. Enter, cork:

Cost/Materials: I knew when I saw them on a shelf at Michaels that I wanted to try using these cork letters to make our banner. They are significantly smaller than the ones in the picture that inspired me, but I liked their natural look and that they would be easy (in theory) to string together. The box costs about $5, but even less if you extreme coupon like I do. I got them when they were on sale 50% off, which happens every so often for the "Natural Threads" collection they are a part of. Then I got a bit of clear jewelry string (I'm not actually sure what it's called, but it looks like imitation sinew/fishing line) for 99 cents. My recommendation is that you can probably find something cheap but still sufficiently strong. I also used sewing needles and pliers (necessary if you have delicate hands like mine). Optionally, you can also use some faux flowers to add a little extra something.

How I Did It: I started writing out some phrases, beginning with "We've decided on forever," then threaded a needle with the clear string. I put the needle into one side of the letter, about 3/4 of a centimeter down from the top of the letter, and did my best to keep it going straight through without it popping out the other end too far to one side or the other. Basically you want to make sure it's going to be secure, such that if the letter was tugged on it wouldn't fall off the line. As you put your phrase together, you want to make sure you're doing the letters in order and all facing the same direction. Each time I added one I pulled it a little further down the line to be sure the way I put it on matched up with the other letters. It's not difficult, but you're better safe than sorry! The toughest part about this was working the needle through some of the letters. Most of them weren't too tough, but some you really had to push, and pushing on the end of a needle doesn't work out well for flesh, so I started using a pair of pliers. Start the needle in where you want it, then use the pliers to push it as far as you can until it starts coming out the other end, then grab the part that is coming out with the pliers and pull it the rest of the way through. This honestly was tough for me, but I also have the hands of a child.

The last thing I did was connect a few letter "U" pieces together and superglued some faux flowers to them, then strung the piece through the cork as a little extra decoration at the end of the phrase. I think it makes it look a little more romantic.

To have it ready for hanging, I was sure to leave plenty of the string on either end. My hope is our venue will have something we can either tie it to, or will allow us to use non-damaging 3M command hooks that a little loop of the string could be hung onto. We'll see what happens! I'm storing it hanging across a curtain rod so it doesn't get tangled up or warped.

The Outcome: I like it! The letters can be adjusted after they're on; the cork holds onto the string pretty tightly assuming you've used a small enough needle, so they have just the right balance of being adjustable but staying in place once you get them where you want them. Here is the main one I talked about, plus a photobooth directional sign I made while I was at it.

Lessons Learned/Tips: I tried painting the letters in our colors with acrylic paint, but it honestly didn't come out all that well. Just a heads up. It looked patchy and uneven so I definitely preferred them au naturale.

Also, because I'm a generally a stickler for grammar, I wasn't going to go without an apostrophe in the contraction ("we've"). I made this by cutting off part of an X since I figured it wasn't a letter I'd use many of. I actually cut it with the handy dandy wood burning tool I talked about in the last post. Cutting cork with scissors leaves a really uneven edge, but using the "exaco" type accessory on a heat tool lets you get a smooth finish. I also used it to do surgery on a few letters (turning Q into O, etc.) and creating an arrow for the photobooth sign.

Would I Do It Again: Sure. I bought a bunch of the boxes of letters so I can craft future things with them, not necessarily all banners. They're cheap, and I think they make a pretty bold statement.