High-Tech DIY Projects: Cork Art for the Cork Dork

Valentine's Day is approaching. Who cares, right? We don't celebrate Valentine's Day, so that makes it a perfect opportunity to surprise Greg with a gift! Hehehe... That said, buying a present for him has always been a great challenge for me. One might think what can be the challenge buying a present for a guy, just get a bottle of booze. Well, Greg is a wine professional... in fact calling him a Wine God wouldn't be much of an exaggeration! Therefore gifting him with a bottle of wine can't ever be an option for me, as I know nothing about wine.

Since I had a hard task in my hand, I thought I'd better start looking for a unique present as early as I can. After a little search online, I found this image with a link to Etsy. It was going to be the perfect gift, as it was related to wine and love. So I followed the link and saw that it wasn't available any more...bummer! It would have made the perfect gift.

cork art for the cork dork, crafts, repurposing upcycling, seasonal holiday decor, valentines day ideas, wall decor

Giving a second thought, it looked easy enough to do, so I decided to give it a try. I grabbed some wine corks, a hot glue gun, a pencil, white acrylic paint, a black foam board to use as a background and a frame to display the cork art.

First I drew a wine bottle shape on the foam board, so I could have a form to follow. Then, one-by-one, I started hot gluing the wine corks. Since it was a surprise gift, I had to finish whole thing in hiding, so I don't really have a lot of progress photos on the cork art. But it is straightforward: I just kept hot gluing wine corks until the bottle shape was filled.

Then I painted the top of the corks with white acrylic paint where the label would be.

With some corks, I used the written sides to personalize the cork art. Can you see them? 2010 represents the year we were married, and the three hearts represents our family of three. Since I made the piece, I also put one cork with my initial on it.

For the label part, I got Greg's help - of course without hinting at the surprise. I asked him of all the wines in the world, which one has aged the best. Thinking that I was picking up some interest in wine, he gave the answer to me just like that!

After printing the label, I pinned it to the cork art using decorative upholstery pins and the cork art itself was finished. But I wanted to display it in a nice frame. The frame I found at Put & Take was the perfect fit, but it needed a redo. You can find the details of that redo on our blog post: In the Frame - No.3

After I completed the frame's redo, I placed the cork art in the frame and secured the back using a point driver.
Here is the finished cork art for the Cork Dork.