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

Wow, December was a great month!  Our wine cork tree tutorial was featured on Wine Sisterhood: Holiday Wine Bottle and Cork Crafts

And the shop was full of custom orders and online sales! Here’s one of our holiday favorites… a four foot DIY wine cork frame!

On December 21st we closed our Etsy shop for the first time since opening it in July 2010. Our family took a much needed vacation and explored the Great Smoky Mountains. It was an amazing trip and we are blessed to have spent the time together.

We have lots of plans for 2013!  Our first wine cork tutorial of the new year will be up on the blog later this week, and our Corky Wednesdays posts will return soon as well!  Our Etsy shop will remain closed throughout the month of January as we replenish inventory and make some changes to our growing business. We are already receiving new reclaimed inventory… like this salvaged mirror that I just had cut down for framing!

I am looking forward to creating with you in 2013!

Thank you, Bee

First Prize

Second Prize

Wine Cork Coaster – Sto… TheWoodenBee $7.25	Welcome Reclaimed Wood … TheWoodenBee $9.75	Wine Cork Magnets – Col… TheWoodenBee $2.75	Honey Wine Cork Coaster… TheWoodenBee $7.25
Wine Cork Coaster Craft… TheWoodenBee $9.50	Wood Hanger, Reclaimed … TheWoodenBee $7.00	Reclaimed Hardware – An… TheWoodenBee $8.00	Wine Cork Coaster – Sto… TheWoodenBee $7.25
Craft Wine Corks – Cora… TheWoodenBee $9.00	Wine Cork Coaster – Sto… TheWoodenBee $7.50	Brown Wine Corks – Choc… TheWoodenBee $8.00	Hardware Supply – Antiq… TheWoodenBee $7.00
Wine Corks – synthetic TheWoodenBee $1.75	Faded Blue Craft Corks … TheWoodenBee $6.50	Wood Hanger, Reclaimed … TheWoodenBee $9.00	Wine Cork Magnets – upc… TheWoodenBee $9.50

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Our first year on Etsy we had 101 online sales.  Since September 2011 we have had 90 online sales.

DIY Bulletin Board Kit

Distressed Wall Hanger with reclaimed copper knobs

Reclaimed Cabinet Door with Mirror & Hooks

Distressed Wall Hanger for keys & more...

Here’s a few custom frames we recently did…

Our client was looking for beachy crackled frames to fit these vintage posters:

Online inventory numbers have been low as we try to replenish what has been sold.  We sold out of DIY bulletin boards by the end of November and now have a few more back in stock! A new batch of reclaimed coasters, in a new style and color, will be available online this weekend as well!

Other shop news:

Daytona Etsy Shop SALE! Today is the last day to save 10% off your order! Check out this Winter Green Sale Collection for a sample of items available at participating Daytona shops and enter coupon code DaytonaEtsy10 at checkout. Offer ends at midnight 12/9/11.

Our wine cork tutorial was featured here on Florida Etsy Street Team on 12/4. We are excited to have our shop on the front page of this site all month long!!!

And finally, don’t forget our free gift wrapping offer!

Happy Holidays and many thanks for all the love the shop has gotten this season!

Bee

Enter coupon code CYBERMONDAY

for 25% off your entire order!

Offer good Monday, November 28th ONLY. Enter code at checkout. Not applicable on custom orders.

Other Wooden Bee Happenings to report:

~We only have 3 of 5 holiday ornaments still available (above), and they have only been available since the 19th of November!

~Limited Time $5 SHIPPING SALE on Select Items

~We were excited to be featured in this article:  Turn Your Corks Into Home Décor

~We have a new Pinterest board: Wine Corks It features a ton of wine corking ideas!

Lastly, we have a great article on Upcycled Gift Wrap out, with a little giveaway to help you get started!

Happy Monday,

Bee

We had a productive October with both online and custom orders keeping us busy.  I am excited to have purchased some more crates and tables for our expanding studio. I spent many hours last month reorganizing and hopefully making our little operations more productive.

Action in our sustainable supplies section of our shop is always fun! We have sent upcycled colorful wine corks all over the country this past month. We have also given leftover azek materials new life.  We sold a couple batches to Chucka Stone Designs, another handmade shop on Etsy.  They turned our reclaimed azek into gorgeous faux granite coasters! How amazing!

Jenn from Chucka Stone Designs wrote a great article on making the faux granite coasters. Check it out! She has a new batch coming out soon too!

Etsy, our online marketplace, offers a team community that is great for shop support and development. We were asked to become a team leader for Upcyclers, a collaboration of 1400+ worldwide shops that love to upcycle and recycle.  I am very excited for the opportunity and now have a regular Sunday article on their blog. Here are a few of the posts that I published there last month:

Sunstainable Sundays: Corrugated Mosaics

Greener Shopping: Halloween Candy

Sustainable Sundays: Abounding Treasures

Sustainable Sundays: Altered Perceptions

Another fabulous team that I am involved with, EcoEtsy, selected my treasury creation to win a contest and I received some free online advertising! Woohoo! They also asked me to become a ”Pinner” for the team, and a small bio of our shop can now be found on their site.

If you haven’t yet looked into Pinterest. It is great! We actually pin for two Etsy teams and love the access to ideas and photos that Pinterest gives the online world. It just a virtual world of bulletin boards. I personally use it to collect and save craft ideas for the kids. For the shop I use it to promote, collect and share upcycled ideas, and for the gardening blog I use it to collect and share organic gardening ideas.  Here is screen shot of my boards:

Looking Ahead…

Now that Halloween is behind us we are looking forward to the holiday season!  We have tried to replenish our online shop inventory to get ready.  This has been a bit hard to do with our sustainable coasters kits. They have been so popular that at one point I had a small waiting lists for them. We currently only have four sets online. Hoping for more by the end of the month!

November plans included several crafty holiday blog tutorials. Be on the look out!  We also have plans to showcase our first ever reclaimed wood tree ornaments! We are very excited to introduce these gorgeous wood creations. Quantities are limited (as in 5), so be sure to be on the look out!

Here’s a little sneak peek…

Happy November!

the reclaimed wood chalkboard in my kitchen

All my life I have loved to craft. When I was a child, I made hair bows, bracelets and cross-stitched. I took art and photography classes in high school. In college I worked for a jeweler and artist. I just have always gravitated toward creative situations.

Since today is my birthday, I thought I’d share a few of my own private pieces of work. And since pencils are my favorite medium, here are two sketches that I really enjoyed making.

Your eye is the gateway to your soul, 1999.

All tigers are endangered, 2000.

To help celebrate, I thought I would also offer a 15% off coupon for my online shop. TODAY ONLY! Enter coupon code ”BIRTHDAY” at checkout to get your special savings.

Happy Birthday my friends! I hope we all have many more creative days ahead.

~Bee

After a larger shipment of reclaimed cabinet doors came in, we decided to create a few new ways to use them! We gave some a few hooks and created some new reclaimed wall hangers!

We even found a salvaged mirror for one!

We also decided to share a few with our customers!  Create your own art and you decide what do with them!

You can find all our currently available reclaimed cabinet door fronts in a new section of our online shop!

August seemed to be the month for custom orders. I still have three to finish up but wanted to blog about this awesome order!

Two cherry brown cabinet doors with chalkboard centers and upcycled oak wine corks on two custom made easels. Of course, all the wood is reclaimed.

They were shipped (all 24 pounds) to Denver, CO and will be displayed in someone’s wedding! I thought it was so special.

My husband and I really enjoyed making this order.  We will definitely be making the art easels again. I love how natural they turned out!