Corks Galore!

My last visit to Emily's house brought a new project for her home.  I brought with me a big bag of corks (that my sister, Sandy, rounded up from the local winery) to do something with.   Emily's been collecting them.  Her friends have been collecting them for her.  So, I added my bag to hers and we were swimming in corks. 

We decided to make a word sign for the space above her kitchen cabinets.  This is where she has been displaying her empty wine bottles.  She had quite a collection (!)  We sorted and saved only her favorite wine bottles.  The cork sign would be placed among these.  The word we chose - ENJOY. 

We played around with different sizes, different looks and it came down to these two:

 Then we had to find the board in her very limited wood pile.  Not much to choose from, but we found a piece of plywood that would work.  I guess one has to live in one place for a while to be worthy of a decent wood pile.  I have one, but it could be better.  You can bet I try hard to bring home free, random scrap pieces of wood to my garage for future use.  Some of my findings are in my sister's attic for safe keeping (and hiding). 

We thought the natural color of the plywood would blend in too much with the wall color, so we painted it brown.  Again, not a stock pile of paints to choose from.  We used one of those little bottles that cost .99.   We used it all.   Emily will have to deal. 

We watched the paint dry, cuz we were so eager to begin gluing the corks to the wood.  A bit tedious, but we were ready for tedious work to see this project on the wall.  Of course, tedious work is always more fun with a glass of wine.  We had to taste Emily's new favorite wine (again). 

Emily even picked out her favorite corks!  Who can remember which cork came from which wine?  Evidently, some names make their corks recognizable and save-worthy.  She especially liked the corks with the house on them.  We also liked using the corks from red wines that have colored the corks red, pink, or purple.  Makes sense, but not something I noticed before.  Only when one is looking at hundreds of corks does one see the difference in their color and shape.

We eye-balled the placement for each letter.  We both have pretty good eye-balling skills.  A ruler or string would've been a good idea, but we were on a roll, in the zone, having a good time. 

Who neede extras steps!

Here's the final project in place.  It looks pretty good!  Adds a little corky fun to her home. 

She has enough corks left for some other fun project.  I'll be seeing her again in July.  Who knows what will come of them.  I'll let you know whatever it is.   In the meantime...enjoy!