I Hope They’ll Covet This Wine Cork Trivet

In Honor of the Dare to DIY Challenge levied by Decor and the Dog with Maybe Matilda, NewlyWoodwards, and Two Twenty One, I spent the weekend finally getting on a few projects that are a bit more holiday appropriate.  Including getting my DIY Gifting on, along with this project – The Wine Cork Trivet.

While browsing Goodwill for a replacement glass for this project, I came across a handy tile trivet with a beautiful frame.

It was OK looking, but for under $2 I figured it would be a handy frame for a Wine Cork version without requiring too many corks.  So I added it to my cart and brought it home.

The first step was figuring out how to get the tile out.  The back panel was flexible, and if I put enough pressure I could actually just get under the edge of the tile with a butter knife.  After trying that a few times and getting discouraged, I whacked the handle of the knife on the tile and actually caused the corner to crack…. so I went to town on it with the knife then a hammer until I was able to break up and pry all the pieces off the frame.

  

Once the pieces were all broken and pryed clean I wiped the whole thing down and went to get my cork collection and hot glue gun to be ready to start laying out the cork.

I set the cork into the frame and it quickly became apparent that even if I cut them in half, I would still be a little short.

Given that I was hoping to make a few more trivets for additional gifts, I knew I’d need more than I could reasonably drink in time.  Fortunately, Whole Foods has recycling bins for cork.  So I grabbed my biggest purse and hit the road.

After my first attempt failed, my second stop yielded a Whole Foods with a fairly full bin!

  

I reached in and grabbed my first fistful after glancing about to be sure no one was staring – I’m not entirely sure, even if they’re for recycling, if they are OK with this.  My second grab hit – YES!  An OCD wine drinker had zip-lock-bagged an organized collection of cork!  I swiped it and another fistful before heading out the door.  Once I got to my car I was sure to snap a quick shot of my loot!

Once back at the house, I organized the corks and determined what pattern I would use.

Then the arduous task of cutting the cork in half began.  I first tried a serrated blade thinking I could saw through them, but the risk of slipping and sawing my finger was a bit too high for my liking, so instead I used a straight edge blade to cut through them.

Once cut, it was down to re-laying the pattern to be sure before starting the task of gluing them into place.

  

I tried to keep enough variety with the corks I used to create some more texture in the pattern.  The last row of cork was slightly thinner than a standard cork, so I pieced in a champagne cork.

Now that the cork is set, it just needs a bow before placing it under the tree!

So there you have it, my latest Dare to DIY.  If you exclude my little mission to Whole Foods, it really only took maybe 30 minutes.  Hopefully, the recipients of these wont read this! Haha!

Join in and Dare to DIY!

~ Beth

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