Recycled Wine Cork Menu Board

I've been saving wine corks for a long time now with the idea that I was going to use them for crafting.  When I came across a menu shaped MDF frame at my local craft store, I knew just what I wanted to do.

The frame came in two pieces.  The bottom shaped thus and the top with holes cut to create the frame.  I searched around the internet to see if my fellow American reader's can find something similar.  Both Amazon and AC Moore carry the Kaisercraft "Beyond the Page" line that has MDF (Medium Density Fibreboard) shapes and frames.  

I used chalkboard paper to fill in the framed spaces.  It's just like contact paper and even has the grid on the back.  I place my second sheet right under the frame and drew around.  Then when I cut it out I give it a 1/4 inch margin so I'd be sure it would all be under the frame.  If you're in the good old US of A you could also get your hands on some chalkboard paint which works just as well.

Gather together your wine corks.  It too about 50 to complete this project.  If you don't drink wine or don't want to wait while you collect them, Etsy sellers such as petitchateau sell them in batches off 100.  Be careful to buy from sellers who make sure to collect only 100 percent cork stoppers.  That way they are all natural and many look even more authentic with the red wine dying the bottoms.

Then I arranged the wine corks the way I thought I'd want them to be.  I got a bit crazy about making things look just right so this ended up taking longer than necessary.  I wanted to be sure that the balance between corks with graphics and corks with words was evenly distributed.  I also have a issue with backwards or upside down words so that factored in as well.

You can see the top "frame part much better in this picture.

 Once you have the frame the way you like it, hot glue the corks into place.

Give the hot glue about 2 hours to dry and firm up.  If you want a hanging board hot glue  a piece of ribbon to your desired hanging length and cut off the excess.

See that chopstick hanging out?  I use that to smooth down the ribbon after the glue has been applied.  I can't tell you how many times I've burned my fingertips with hot glue.

While the hot glue was resting, I used 2 more wine corks to make labels for the days of the week.

I simply used a ruler to mark 1/2 inch increments on a "fancier" cork.  Then used a serrated knife to cut each cork into 4 pieces.

These were then hot glued into place and I abbreviations using scrap booking letter stickers.

Perfect for organizing my brain for the weekly shopping!



Linking up Here: