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

We have also been entering contests too! Who doesn’t love to win something, right?!

Contest #1

Upcycled Stuff is featuring an Upcycled Challenge this month in honor of National Sewing Month.  Participants signed up to received a package of “trash” in the mail.  Here was mine…

The challenge… I had to upcycle some of all of the different pieces of trash I received.

So I decided to make decorative fabric balls!

How did I make them from trash?!

First I opened up the tie and removed the lining inside. My children were doing their homework while I did this project, and they said the balls had to make noise, so I tore up some of the paper tags and placed them inside the plastic ball containers I had received.

Some of the paper tags had some thread on their edges, so I unraveled it and used it to secure the tie fabric around the balls. This was the hardest part, short pieces of string and a curved surface.

They didn’t turn out perfect, but for a crafter that only knows how to sew buttons on pants I was very pleased.

What can I win? Entries will be voted on and I have a chance to win an awesome shopping spree from Upcycled Stuffed!

Contest #2

The second crafty contest I entered this month is held by Team Upcyclers on Etsy and hosted by Idle Hands Yarn Supply.  It is simple… use part or all of an old t-shirt and upcycle it into something new!

Last winter, I loved to make tshirt scarves so I had a lot of extra hems in my craft bag.  I used them to make a new headband and new bracelet for this contest.

I simply braided the headband and left extra at the ends to tie it behind my neck.

For the bracelet I stretched the tshirt string and wrapped it around an old tarnished bangle and secured it with a dot of glue.

What can I win? All entries are featured on the Love 2 Upcycle Blog and two winners will be selected to have their Etsy shop’s advertised for a month for FREE!

Fingers Crossed!

Thanks, Bee

Each Wednesday we are going to highlight different wine cork crafts.  Cork crafting is gaining popularity so check out some of this week’s DIY ideas and be sure to save your corks!

Wreaths have much history and symbolism associated with them. In English speaking countries they are mainly used to celebrate Christmas and as household ornaments. Wreaths are common in ceremonial events around the globe, especially during burial ceremonies.  What a wreath is made out of typically gives it a symbolic meaning. For instance, a wreath of evergreens is said to symbolize strength. I wonder what a wreath of wine corks would symbolize?!

Wine Cork Wreaths have many different beautiful looks.

I love functional art, so I thought this wreath to be quite clever…

Bulletin Board Wine Cork Wreath from LuLus.com

I found this wreath on Pinterest and pinned it to our Wine Cork board.  It is originally from Lulus.com and was featured in their article – DIY: Things to do with Old Wine Corks You can also make wine cork thumb tacks to go with any cork wreath.

This wreath was super cool with its colored corks!  This DIY wreath tutorial tells you how to paint the corks. We have several colors of dyed corks available in our shop.  I’m going to have to use a few to make this wreath!

And this Wine Cork Wreath could add a little light to your night!

It’s our wine cork Christmas trees with a new twist! I bet a similar wine cork and light combo would also make great garland!!!

Look for next Wednesday’s corky post! We will be sharing tabletop decorating ideas.

Thanks,

Bee

All photographs have been linked to their sources.

Hello!  March just flew by!  I didn’t keep up with my goal to post a craft tutorial every month, because March was full of spring breaks, birthdays, camping trips, and lots of fun!  I would love to share with you a crafty little party we threw for my daughter at the end of March though!

Our oldest daughter turned six, and she asked for a Sea Turtle Rescue Party for her special day.  Here’s how I made her party ideas come to life…

Our birthday girl requested a sea turtle egg hunt on the beach…  So mom took Easter eggs purchased from Goodwill (they carry last year’s holiday decorations from Target), and placed ”grow your own sea creature” capsules in each egg.  I taped them with blue painters tape, both to insure the eggs stayed closed during the hunt, but also to make them easy to find in the beach sand.

Then my daughter requested we make incubators to carry our sea turtle eggs off the beach.  So, I wrapped old shipping boxes with recycled brown craft paper, and the kids could then personalize their incubators.

They had Sea Turtle Rescuer name tags, stickers, construction paper, markers, scissors, and glue to make their incubator creations.

On the special day of the party, we made a mock sea turtle nest on the beach and filled it with 72 eggs!

And all the little rescuers came out with their shovels and incubators:

After all eggs were found, we headed back to the party room to hatch our eggs!

We also purchased a beautiful sea turtle cake from a local bakery! The detail on the cake was amazing!!!

For party favors we used buckets bought on clearance last year, and filled them with Planet Earth coloring books, markers, compass, toys & snacks.

Happy Birthday to our first born! Can’t believe our little rescuer is six!

More wine cork tutorials and an Earth Day SALE coming soon!

Thanks, Bee

With just days until Christmas we are all ready and super excited for our Christmas company to arrive!  I hope you have found time to craft this holiday season.  We wanted to share a few crafty things new and old.

Our neighbor didn’t want the above pictured snowman bags anymore, so we filled them with wine corks and hung them in the dining room for a little extra decorating!  I’ll have to add another line to my ever growing list of wine cork uses… stuffing.  Yes, leftover wine corks make great stuffing for decorations.  We could have stuffed them with more corks, and they would have been able to stand up themselves.  We decided to hang them for space.  Additionally, the corks were a great size for my two year to help stuff. She loves our new “noman” decorations.

This year, one blog subscriber made wine cork trees from last year’s craft post.

Another subscriber made our upcycle gift bows (and won our gift tag contest).

This month our holiday craft tutorials have been featured on this Florida blog:

Wine Cork Garland

Wine Cork Trees

Magnolia Wreaths

AND we are featured in an awesome little interview! Check out our answers on nash pop!

I hope you have found some time to create and share this busy holiday season.

Happy Crafting, Bee

After many suggestions & encouragement from our customers & friends, we are going to start posting our crafting ideas on our blog as well!  So, here is our first holiday craft of the season!  Special thanks to my artist friend Jami J. for her inspiration!

Materials:
__paper craft cone ( 11” or 14” height)
__wine corks (either synthetic, oak or both)
__strand of Christmas lights (battery operated or plugin)
__mini tree topper star
__hot glue gun

First, decide what size cone you would like to use for your tree. The number of wine corks available to you can help determine the size. When using the smaller 11”cones, you will need about 50 wine corks per tree. The larger 14” cones will take at least 100 wine corks. Once you have determined the size, you have some options on the material of the cone.  We prefer the paper cone because it is the color of the wine corks, should you not cover every spec of surface with the wine corks.  We also like the paper cone because it is hollow & allows you to hide the battery box so the lit tree can be put anywhere!  The other cone material available is Styrofoam. Styrofoam cones allow you to easily pin the lights to the surface & are offered in much larger sizes should you have hundreds of corks to use. However, they are not as environmentally friendly as paper.

After, you have purchased your cone, put on your star topper & get ready for the lights.  You can use white lights or colored lights. Most battery operated light strands have only 10-12 lights per strand & I would only use them for the smallest of the paper craft cones. If you are using the 14” cone for your tree, around 30 lights would be best.  Remember to leave a little extra cord at the bottom, either to tuck under the cone or to reach the wall outlet.  Start your light strand at the top, evenly wrapping the lights on the cone.  With the paper cone you can use tape to hold the light strand in place as you wrap the lights (this also allows you to re-position them as you glue your corks if needed).  I like to leave a little extra give when wrapping, so that when I am gluing the corks on I can move the lights to fit into place perfectly.

When your glue gun is hot & ready, start applying your wine corks at the bottom of the cone. Make sure to glue them so that you still keep a nice level surface for the tree to sit on.  I start the corks at the bottom but then I jump to the top & then fill in the middle.  There is no pattern, put the corks everywhere & anywhere as you are covering the surface of the cone.  A second layer of wine corks will help cover any gaps or holes & the Christmas lights will stick out through the layered corks. I have even had to add a third layer to the base of the tree to help keep the tree shape.  You will have to hold the corks in place for 20-30 seconds sometimes, especially when you are gluing cork to cork.

If you would like to add a little extra jazz to your wine cork Christmas tree, cut acrylic paint with blending gel (or water) & paint your wine corks before starting! Cutting or diluting the paint allows the designs on the wine corks to still show but adds a little color to the cork. I chose to dye only some of my oak wine corks on this tree…green & red wine to add the perfect Christmas colors. You can paint synthetic corks but I would only recommend the oak.

Please feel free to email, thewoodenbee@gmail.com, with any questions (& send pictures of your wine cork tree creations)! One of the things I liked about this craft, is it allows you some play & creativity so each tree is unique.

Our next crafting blog will be a magnolia cone wreath! Our daughter is thrilled to help with this, since she’s been collecting the magnolia cones on our nature walks all year long!

Happy Crafting!

~Bee