Things to do with all those wine corks you are saving

Do you have a habit of saving the cork from bottles of wine to remember special occasions, or simply keep them because you know there has to be a great idea out there to recycle them?  I have some corks saved (and am now wishing I had even more!) because this is one of the most ingenious ideas I have seen to do with corks!

Re-Nest, (via Craft Gossip) a blog with plenty of ideas for those wanting a “green home”, has the instructions here.  Inspiration turn Design has another style of corkboard, but on a much larger scale.

And just as much, I love these wine cork trivets, another great way to show off your wine corks, and I like that this one takes advantage of the sides of the corks too.  Here is another cork trivet from Martha Stewart, but I like the first one better!  And Darning Diva has another kind of cork trivet which is super, super simple to make, so you can even get your kids to do or help with this one.

You could also make a wine cork wreath to hang on your door or for decoration.

Another really interesting idea, and one your younger kids would probably have a lot of fun with, is using corks to make button stamps from Her Cup Overfloweth .  You can then stamp cards/paper/etc with all kinds of unique buttons you have collected over the years, or you can buy a mixed bag of buttons fairly inexpensively at places like WalMart and craft stores.  You can also carefully carve a design into the wine top and use the top itself as a stamp.

Chica and Joe have a cute wine cork basket they designed using an old wicker basket.  This would be perfect for making up a gift basket for any wine lover on your list.  Add a couple bottles of wine, some glasses, wine charms, bottle toppers, etc, and you have a fabulous gift basket to give someone for Christmas, a birthday or any other special event.  It would also make a cute hostess gift too!

eHow has a couple crafts with wine corks – a Christmas tassel ornament and a few others.  And there is this cute Rudoph the Red Nose Reindeer made out of wine corks.

Not sure what to do with your wine bottles in the mean time?  La Petite Chic shows off what she does with her wine corks to turn them into a great home decor piece.

And last, not a craft per se, but a cute idea… a wine cork USB drive, for the wine loving geek in all of us 🙂

So next time you have a bottle of wine, save the cork for one of these great projects.  If you are impatient, ask around, because a lot of people tend to save them, then don’t know what to do with them afterwards!