Corked !

First, let me start this post by saying that I am not a crafts person. While I have been to a several craft supply places over the years, it's never been for a craft project of any sort.

This year was only the second time I had been in Hobby Lobby, one of the largest craft supply stores in this area, and it was overwhelming.


That said, what I'm about to post about may seem surprising. As a first-time owner of a glue gun, I can say that it's amazing what can be done with it and a supply of glue sticks. 

You may have correctly figured out that the corks will be used for a wreath as the styrofoam wreath is adjacent. The wine corks were compliments of us, wine-drinking neighbors and friends and a local wine store manager who contributed a very large bag of corks she's been saving for a few years. (She said she never knew why and was happy to part with them and so was I.)

Some of these pine cones were purchased in local thrift stores. Others were from a neighbor who collects them for her crafts, but had extras.

The reason behind assembling these items was to create an entry for the annual Christmas wreath contest here at our mill apt residence. While our apt entry is always seasonally decorated, the contest is limited only to a door wreath. Rules are simple: it must be homemade, hung on the apt door, and entered by Dec. 20. Residents vote online and 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners receive Visa gift cards from $100 to $25.

All year, we saved our wine corks and asked others to do the same. Of course, we also had to drink the wine in those corked bottles, after all it was for the contest! A few weeks ago, I started watching online videos and learned many ways to make a cork wreath. 

This wreath was a gift for next door neighbors who had also made the sacrifice of not only drinking bottles of wine during the past year, but also saving the corks. This photo  taken from the back of the wreath shows corks glued along the inner and outer rims. I failed to take step-by-step photos while working. By a rough count, there were over 140 corks on the completed wreath.

Here's the completed wreath. Some add-on decorations were purchased at a dollar store and hot-glued onto the corks. The neighbor who donated pine cones, also does bows, and with her guidance, I fashioned this one and learned that wire ribbon is very useful.

This is how my contest entry looked when corks were glued atop a large straw wreath nearly double the size of the styrofoam one above and so much heavier (what was I thinking?) It wasn't done here; more corks were added before decorations and a bow were attached. When done, it contained well over 200 corks. (It was hard to keep count.)

This completed and decorated wreath was hung on our apt door last week using a Command™ strip hook which promotes easy-on hanging. Apparently, the wreath was too heavy and fell down within a week. Thankfully, corks are very resilient, there was no damage. The purchase of a $2 wreath hanger solved that issue.

Once voting is done and results are tallied, I'll post an update. Here's three other entries with a week left to submit an entry.

Unfortunately, votes from fellow bloggers don't count in this contest. Drat! 

What I learned from this experience, is that it's so easy to get caught up in a DIY project and to collect supplies that might be useful for future projects. Many bought and used or not used may be useful for other projects. (Check out a future post for one.)

How about you — ever done any DIY crafts ?

Cheers & Enjoy your weekend, Everyone.