Kids Cork Crafts on Pinterest

Also, I wanted to share what one of my daughters has been doing with corks this week!

A is for apples. The three year has been learning her letters and enjoyed painting with corks.

F is for Frog. Pipe cleaner, champagne corks, and googly eyes, and we were hopping around.

Even our new kitten has been playing with corks!

So save the corks and get crafty too! ~Bee

Special note: I had decided to stop writing Corky Wednesday posts due to time, orders and family!   Some sweet customers and followers have been asking about them, so I am bringing it back. Instead of weekly, it will be monthly postings now. Thank you for the support!

Previous Corky Wednesdays:  Wine Cork Portraits, Wine Cork Wreaths, and Wine Cork Jewelry

Hello Monday! Our weekend went by too fast, but I was happy to have a chance to spend it in the garden and getting organized at home.  Last week while out shopping I couldn’t find some of my rewards cards at checkout. Every store you go into now days has some sort of customer rewards program, and I can never find them in my wallet or purse.  With two little munchkins with me at checkout I usually give up.  Not anymore!  I designated a wine cork key chain just for my reward cards!

Now I will be able to close my wallet AND find them every time.  See our tutorial on making a wine cork key chain:  Wine Cork Key Chain Tutorial This one was even easier, just a cork, a screw eye, and a split ring! No tools required.

I started cleaning and organizing the workshop this week, and found some extra corks that I had forgotten about!  I layered the different colors in a glass vase and put it on an empty shelf.

Yes, we made the shelf out of reclaimed wood too!

Hope all our crafty friends and followers have a wonderful Mother’s Day weekend!

~Bee

Jewelry / Small Item Display Idea

Materials: old wood stair spindle, wine corks, wood glue, sand paper, stain, painters tape

Tools: saw, drill

When Artistry Day Spa & Salon asked to have a display of our wine cork key chains, of course I said yes!  Now, I have never made a key chain display before but I wasn’t going to say no. How exciting someone wanted to display our cork key chains in their shop!  I drew up some ideas and showed them to the quiet half of The Wooden Bee, my husband Kyle.  We collect a variety of materials in our recycling efforts and I always like to consult him on new projects. After discussing several materials, we settled on an old stair spindle.

I cut it up before I thought to take a picture, but here it is pieced back together.

We made three cuts for three jewelry displays and an extra wood block (that I’m sure will be reused for another project).

Then we drilled a hole through the stair spindle. We used a wine cork as grommets to secure a wood pole.  Simply drill out the middle of a wine cork and cut it in half to make the grommets. You can use a little wood glue to help secure the grommets (& pole) as well.

Next, I sanded and stained the wood display and wood pole, after covering the wine cork grommets with painters tape. We should have waited to fit the cork grommets until after staining, but we wanted to make sure we could secure the wood display pole before we got any further in the process.

I added little cork “caps” to the wood pole so nothing could slide off. Simply use cut and hollowed ends of wine corks. We have three more displays to make, so I get more detailed with our new idea in future posts!

I loved this project… just another reason to save the wood!!!

Happy Upcycling, Bee

Each year, I use Earth Day to renew my stewardship for the planet. Last year, I set a few green goals.  I wanted to expand my garden, buy a rain barrel, and replace all my nonstick cookware.  Well, with my husband’s help I added approx. 30 SF of space to my raised bed gardens. I did buy a rain barrel but it is not hooked up. And I only replaced half of my nonstick cookware.  Anything that was scratched was replaced with stainless steel, but I still have some saving to do before I can replace everything.

This year’s goal… is that our shop continues to increase our recycling and upcycling efforts. We are collecting more wood, wine corks, and hardware than ever before. I hope to find time to explore greener shipping & promotional materials. I also hope to find ways to use more natural methods to color our wood and corks.  And yes finally hook up that rain barrel.

Earth911 More ideas, Less Waste. is a great place to find info on greener living.

So to celebrate this earthy holiday we’re hosting a THREE item giveaway, (which means THREE winners)!

#1
First item up for grabs… a denim blue wine cork message strip. This mini cork board is perfect for wall space by a phone, door, or computer. Great for leaving notes, displaying special occasion invites, baby announcements and more! Includes thumb tacks.

#2
What’s a giveaway without a gift certificate?! My favorite prize, a $15 gift certificate to our online shop. You get to pick your prize! Gift certificate can be applied to your entire order, including shipping, and is good through June 30th, 2013.

#3
Win a colorful bag of wine cork keychains! Win 10 multi-colored wine cork keychains to use as party favors, give them to your friends, decorate a bottle of wine… there are so many little uses for these fun keychains!

The SALE!

Enter coupon code EARTHDAY at check out for 15% off your entire order, ends Thursday, April 25th, 2013!

Ok, Good Luck! Three winners will be randomly selected and announced on Friday, April 26th, 2013.  Remember to get started you need to leave a blog comment and let us know what your Earth Day goals are this year!!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks, Bee

Beekeeping in the Shop

In March, a local spa & salon started carrying our wine cork keychains. They have been very popular as wedding favors online this month and I have been a busy bee coloring corks!

We made the keychain display holder from an old stair spindle. Howto blog post coming next week!

Our salvage efforts continue to grow. Above is some very rare pieces of wood we saved last week!!! We are running out of room and are having to think about a future expansion!

Beekeeping in the Community

We were honored to host a Crohn’s and Colitis Bunco Fundraiser this month. We gave away 25 wine cork keychains and 7 cute little cork message strips (see below).  I used 12″ piece of  reclaimed wood with colored oak corks and added thumbtacks. They are perfect for small wall spaces by the phone, computer, etc.  (Psst – we’ve giving the blue one away)!

I am excited to be back online and just in time for Earth Day!  We’re hosting a three item giveaway that starts TOMORROW, and we’re offering a special Earth Day Sale that starts TODAY!  Enter coupon code EARTHDAY at checkout for 15% off your entire order. Sale & Giveaway end Thursday April 25th, 2013 at midnight.  Winners will be announced on Friday, April 26th, 2013.

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s earthy giveaway!

Thanks, Bee

For Corky Wednesdays this week, I wanted to share those entries and my selections.  We had wine cork jewelry, cork hair bows, wine cork boats, and toy cork snakes to name a few of awesome creations!!!

First Place

Second Place

And she didn’t win anything, but I have to give a shout out to Sweet Someday!
Sarah’s idea to adjust the color on the ends of her wine corks was really cool!

Hope you enjoyed your weekend, and remember our giveaway and coupon end Monday at midnight! This week on the blog look for our Corky Wednesdays post, and then a St. Patrick’s Day wine cork tutorial next week!  If you’re in need of a craft fix this week, we posted a how-to on our gardening blog.

Thank you, Bee

We made some changes to our shop while we were closed. We added an About Page and re-created our Etsy shop banner.

The old one…

The NEW one…

We have added dozens of new products, including wine cork keychains!

You can see all of our new colored wine cork supplies here!

GIVEAWAY & SALE

For the next seven days we will be celebrating our re-opening with a coupon and giveaway!

Enter coupon code: REOPEN2013 for 15% off your entire order!!!

Coupon does not apply to custom orders. The first 10 orders will receive a FREE wine cork keychain! Pretty cute huh?!

And the best part… we’re giving away a $20 gift certificate to our online shop!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good Luck and Thank You for your Support!

~Bee

Did you miss our Corky Wednesdays post yesterday? The shop is still closed and we have been very busy filling local Valentines orders and re-stocking the online Etsy shop.  Don’t worry you can still get your dose of corky ideas from our Pinterest Board: Wine Corks this week!

We are scheduled to open back up next week with a

big sale and a giveaway!  Stay tuned for details!!!

Until then, here’s a little love from the family dog…

xoxo, Bee