My wine cork collection surely tells the tale of my wine tastes over the years!

It’s no secret that I love wine.  And when you have wine, you usually get wine corks.  Granted, many winemakers are going to the screw tops, but there’s something about opening a bottle with a cork that just feels right. 

I can’t even guess how long I’ve been saving wine corks.  I had a small container in my dining room where I would toss them but eventually, I found a rather large basket at the thrift store that I designated as my wine cork basket.  This year, during the pandemic, it began to overflow.  Hummm…I know what that says about me but at the moment, I don’t care!  I mean, we all have our ways of coping, right?  But before judging, remember that my home is where all the family and friends’ gatherings generally take place, so there’s that. 

Seriously…I have a LOT of wine corks!

A few weeks ago, I decided to empty that rather large basket and placed all the wine corks in a large garbage bag.  I then asked followers on Instagram what they thought I should do with them.  Well, the overwhelming response was to make a craft and some followers even sent me photos of what to try.  The one that got my attention, because it seemed easy to make, was a pumpkin.  With a little hot glue and paint, I set out to see if this would be easy…or not.

First, I chose wine corks that all matched in size.  Well, I tried to!  Some ended up being a little fatter than others, but I did my best.  I lined them up in six rows – two rows of 6, two rows of 7 and two rows of 8.  After hot gluing each row together longways, I began hot gluing the rows together.  First the 6-cork row, then the 7-cork row and finally the 8-cork row.  Then I did the same in reverse. 

Line up the corks to make sure they are all about the same size

Top view of the corks all set by row

The gluing begins!

I kept it orderly and glued by each row.

I see a lot of Butternut and Coppola wine corks! Two of my favs…

The painting step should probably be done before gluing everything together, but I wanted to see how it looked pieced together and decide which corks to paint.  Some already had the red wine stain which gave it a fall look.  I used rose gold and antique copper acrylic paint on several of the corks which complemented the red wine stain color.  Finally, I found a short cork and added it on top as a stem and added three large fall artificial leaves to finish it off. 

Acrylic pain in fall colors, silk leaves and paint brushes

Choosing which corks to paint

The wine stained corks really are pretty!

Added rose gold and antique copper throughout.

I decided to paint the corks that had designs on the end to keep the pumpkin uniform looking.

Stacking the rows and hot gluing together

Finishing touches – adding silk leaves

And the cork on top!

Making the pumpkin was relatively easy, but I will say that while the bottom three rows seemed to fit together perfectly, the top three were a little off.  And when I was gluing the middle two rows together, I forgot that they set right on top of each other so I ended up gluing the round part of the corks.  For the other rows I was gluing in between.  Live and learn!  Honestly, I’m happy with the way it turned out!  And with the number of corks I have left, I could probably make about 50 more of these! 

Finished product! Pumpkin made from wine corks!

I’m thinking I should start looking for some Christmas cork crafts to make now.  What do you think?  Any fun ideas out there?  If so, send them my way!