DIY Christmas Cork Decorations

A friend of mine was recently discussing what to do with corks in Vilnius. I threw a few into my compost pile, but I’ll see after the winter how well they broke down. I discovered a few places to bring the corks for recycling, but decided there had to be something I could do with them at home. After all I have an entire wall covered in cork for some reason!

So, after a few searches on Pinterest, I decided to get started. Check out my DIY board here. I chose to make little snowmen, but there are plenty of other cute designs as well.

I didn’t get a ton of photos of the project because I was trying to finish quickly in order to send them to my family in time for Christmas. But, I’ll do my best to explain what I did. Here’s what you will need.

Supplies

• Corks
• Acrylic paint – white, orange
• paintbrush
• scissors
• hot glue gun
• fabric scraps
• thin permanent marker or black pen
• yarn scraps, fork and thread*
• small pieces of wire*

*Optional

Directions

1. Paint the cork a base color. I used white mixed with a tiny bit of brown but if I did it again, I would use plain white. I did two coats to make sure to get all the cracks of the cork filled in.
2. Then I started making the hats and scarves. I wanted to mix and match various colors and styles, so feel free to get creative with it!
3. If you are wanting to make pom poms, take your fork and wrap the yarn around the tines 8-12 times. Take a piece of thread, put it between the tines under the yarn and tie a knot around the wrapped yarn. Take it off the fork and tie again, making sure the thread is pulled as tight as possible. With your scissors, cut through each loop of the yarn and trim the pom pom to make it round. Detailed video instructions here.
4. Use your glue gun to attach the scarves, hats, or ear muffs to your corks. If you made ear muffs, bend a piece of wire to attach them over the top.
5. Add eyes and mouths using your black pen.
6. Use orange paint to add a little carrot nose.
7. Voila! You’re finished. Hang them on your tree or wrap them up as presents.

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