Sunday, July 24, 2016

Crafting with Wine Bottle Corks

I love recycling nearly as much as I do crafting. I especially enjoy turning trash into treasure, which was the inspiration for my Cara Mia Delgatto Mystery Series. (You can read the first one in the series--Tear Down and Die--absolutely free on a number of platforms. Check it out at https://booklaunch.io/edit/558056e0c6a3572315c53553 or click on TDD )

Wine corks are a fun item to use for crafts. I've made several things from them, including a large trivet. For this, I arranged the corks in a pleasing design, hot glued them together and finally, I added twine around the outer edge.


Recently I had occasion to use corks in my miniatures. I had an idea for how to make a tiny vial of test tubes of blood for my witch's kitchen. However, the vials needed stoppers. I cut a cork into small pieces, sanded them, and plugged the vials. (They're filled with red nail polish!)





That set me thinking. I had a lot of cork left over. Blood would need to be mopped up, right? In fact, if you were cooking with it, surely you would have a bloody handprint or two.

I upended a cork. Using a Sharpie marker, I drew a hand on the end. It was only a rough silhouette, but that was plenty for my purposes. Using a craft knife, I carefully cut around the hand. Next I tested my stamp by dipping it in acrylic paint and stamping on paper. Okay, the cuts needed a bit of work. I trimmed them with the knife again and double-checked my work. Finally, I cut a small piece of paper napkin, using a high-quality napkin without any raised design to interfere with my impression.

And here's the final bloody handprint on the towel.



Have you ever used corks to craft with? What did you make? What do you think of my bloody scene?

2 comments:

Linda O. Johnston said...

Hmmm. Looks as if I should save those wine bottle corks, not recycle them. Only, I'm not at all as creative as you with such crafty things. Guess I'll just continue drinking--a glass a day--and thinking about all the stuff I could try to do...!

Joanna Campbell Slan said...

This is the perfect excuse for drinking wine, Linda. Trust me.