Sarah says: Thanks to my wine club (that I forgot to cancel, but is now officially cancelled), I ended up with two bottles of this. It continues to grow on me. Tonight, I found it to be quite good. A nice way to end a stressful Saturday. It's a good wine for cool nights, not really a summer wine, which seems ok since it's 40 degrees this May! And yes, I drank from a water glass, it really was a stressful day, don't judge me.
I've been saving all my wine corks for awhile now, with no idea what to do with them. I got to the point where I couldn't possibly squeeze another into my jar, so I decided it was time... I honed in all my creative juices, and did a wine cork craft!! I consulted google, and pinterest, and Michaels. I read, and researched, and pondered. After much thought, a few glasses of wine, and only 3 moments of total frustration, I ended up with a coaster and a trivet! Ta da!!
And... they are functional!!!
Whoot whoot!!
I'm very un-creative and arts and crafts just aren't my thing (that is probably the #1 reason I changed majors from elementary ed to accounting so many years ago). Luckily, I pretty much found the easiest crafts I could find, and it's not so bad when you do it while drinking wine!! Plus, some of them bring back some fun memories, it was fun to dump out the jar and reminisce.
Here's how it's done... the coaster is the easiest, take 8 corks, arrange them in a square using a 2 corks and turn pattern. Make sure you corks are level and approximately the same size. Glue together, and you're done!
The hot pad is slightly more complicated. Find an unused picture frame, take out the glass and any matting that is included. Also, you may need to remove any hooks on the back or the standing post. Put the cardboard backing back into place. Arrange the corks in whatever patter you desire, trying to cover as much of the cardboard as possible. Hot glue into place. I took it one step further, cut one cork into 4 small pieces and added it to the bottom 4 corners of my frame, because I didn't want it scratching my table. And you're done!! Make sure you only use real corks for this project, the artificial plastic ones won't absorb the heat from a hot pan the way regular corks do, you could end up with a melted mess. The fake corks are great for the coaster above!
Now wine has served a purpose, it has pushed me out of my comfort zone and into spending Saturday night doing crafts. And, now you all know what you're getting for Christmas!
What did you do tonight?
