Wine cork stamps and key chain DIY

When you pop out the cork from a wine bottle, you know not what can happen with the one inch cylindrical piece. Obviously it goes to trash

I did so too, and tried to figure out for long what can be made out of those little tubes of no significance. Bless the thousands of people posting their ideas online, and I picked up and idea or two for wine corks lying around at home.

When you collect a good number of corks, it is possible to make coasters and art pieces out of wine corks. With one or two, you can experiment with other smaller crafts.

I tried making wine cork stamps and a key chain with left over material of the cork pieces.

This five minutes' project needs few items:

-- a sharp edged craft knife

-- wine corks that are in fairly good shape

-- stamping ink

-- marking pen or pencil

-- for the keychain, a key ring

-- jump rings among jewellery/jewelry findings

-- jewelry pliers

-- plain paper to try the stamping design out

For a start, mark out a desired shape on the side of the wine cork that is not too damaged with your pen or pencil. Use the crafting knife carefully and carve the shape out. It may be noted that carving tools are available for corks. But with some skill, you can use the pen knife too. It was my first experiment, so I stuck to the knife.

I made two designs on two similar pieces, that posed their own challenge, such as, uneven and bumpy surface...

The idea was not perfect pieces, but pieces that would have a good effect on paper. Here is the inked cork stamp, ready for use on paper.

And here is how they turned out looking on paper.

Note that with cork, you will need some extra pressing and tilting of the stamp for the shape to turn out fine on paper. Use this for patterned designs to make gift wraps, or decorate bookmarks, or mark your books with a standard signature...

I decided to make use of the side of my cork pieces that were left unused for the stamp. And used the knife to cut discs. The disc came in handy to make a keychain charm.

All that I needed was, jump rings, a tiny plastic o-ring, with the keychain ring and jewellery pliers.

                           

                            

And here is how it turned out after I fixed the jump rings - one to the cork which had a hole already, and another to the ring.

And the wine cork accessorized keychain is ready for use.

A single wine cork can come in handy as not just an accessory, but useful for other little needs too.

 Try your hand at wine corks from old wine bottles. Or corks that come with other containers. The stamps will be useful for your kid's school projects, or your own crafting projects around home.

As for the keychain, it adds that earth-friendly feel to your vanity bag or wallet! Or simply gift them all to a friend.


Pictures courtesy: Radhika M B

For permission to reuse, write to: radicreative@gmail.com