DIY: Cork Crafts

Image courtesy designsponge.com

Cork is largely unappreciated – not only is it the most environmentally way to seal up a bottle of tasty vino, but the Cork Oak forests are the native habitat of the Iberian Lynx (which is one bad-ass lookin’ cat, no?). Planet Earth lesson aside, cork is also used in insulation, musical instruments and some keen crafts for your broke ass. Just ask your favorite bartender to save up a few weeks’ worth of cork and you’ve already got your raw material on hand. From there, you’ve got a few options, starting with coasters.
Coasters are great because they’re easy and there are several ways to go about making them. If you’re using round cork (like from wine bottles), then try out this snowflake pattern: all you need to do is slice the cork and then sew it together using two stitches. (If you’re not the needle and thread type, you can glue the cork discs into a circular shape using a plastic lid as a base.) If you’ve somehow managed to score flat sheets of cork then grab some stencils, spray paint and foam for numbered cork coasters, or grab some felt and an xacto blade to made this mod coaster set

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Image courtesy curbly.com

Your next cork craft category: bathmats.

Image courtesy recylart.org

Bathmats mostly just involve cutting the cork then gluing it to a non-adhesive liner, but you don’t really need to go through all that effort: you can also just stand them up in a shadow box. And if you’re into the big version, there’s a tinier version: the trivet (just glue to balsam board and trim as needed).
Lastly, there’s the downright obvious: cork board – but cork board doesn’t have to be boring, just throw a frame around corks arranged in a pattern. If you’ve got flat rolls of cork, cut it out into shapes like the corkboard travel map, or my personal fave: the Pac Man cork board

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Image courtesy unplggd.com

Cut out some paper snowflakes to disguise your cork board or slide the flat cork into a pretty frame. Round cork can get used to make a wreath or frame, or a mud mat. Flat cork can get woven into strips and used for serving trays, vase covers and purses (oh yeah, you’re gonna want to check out that link).