Cork Placecards

I started a new project last week! Most of you know that I've been hoarding corks for... um... ever. Yes, seriously. It goes right along with my "I can't throw anything away" thing. I've been saving corks for a couple years now, and when we got engaged I knew I'd want to use them for a DIY project of some sort. Initially I thought I'd do placecards with a slit down the middle, like so:

Hip Hostess

I'd seen them for sale all over the place and thought, hey, that seems super easy to do, why don't I just make my own? *seems* was the key word there. I sat down with some corks and my x-acto knife one day and proceeded to almost lose 3 fingers in one sitting. I was honestly perplexed. How can this really be this difficult?! I thought it was going to be a quick and easy slice down the center and done. Nope. I put this project aside for awhile. When I was visiting MOH Ryann in Kansas, we went to a winery with her sister, friend, and parents and I ended up telling them about my cork collection/projects. Turns out, her parents have been collecting corks, too. They did something pretty awesome with them! They sliced corks in half and filled in the side of one of their cabinets with them and it looks great! MOH Ryann's mom said they used this super sharp knife to cut a slit down the middle in order to attach them to the side of the cabinet. So I starting thinking, maybe I just need a longer, sharper, knife.

Then I decided I liked the look of the two-corks-glued-together-with-ribbon-wrapped-around-it idea better! Like so:

WeddingBee Post

BONUS - this project really IS super easy! You hot glue two corks together, then wrap ribbon around them (with a tiny bit of glue to hold it on). That's it. Really. That's it. Here are mine (not my placecards, that's one I got from another wedding):

I felt so productive when I got 30 or so done the other night while watching Criminal Minds. Sure, it takes more corks to do (2 per place setting versus just 1), but it's so much easier and you don't have to deal with the potential issues involved in the slit ones:

- slit has to be at a bit of a diagonal so the card looks up or at least straight ahead (sounds frustrating)

- have to stabilize the cork somehow - attach something flat to the bottom or cut off the side of the cork so it stands up and doesn't roll around

- can watch TV while gluing instead of having to pay very close attention to where you cut

- potentially losing fingers...

So folks, cork donations continue to be accepted - and will be after the wedding, too! I plan on making a dart board out of corks someday. We'll see how long it takes me to get around to doing that... but I will do it!

One last thing - yesterday at Target I saw a box of "decorative corks" for $10. What?! There must have only been maybe 10-15 in there, and they weren't blank corks - they looked just like most of mine! Can you say rip off?

-C

xxx