Confessions of a Wine Cork Hoarder

I was just looking at a super cool wine cork garland on Pinterest and thought “oooh! I need to start saving wine corks again!” Yes, again. See, I made a square wine cork bulletin board a few years ago once I had finally saved up enough corks. I had a Keds shoebox full of them. I dutifully saved every wine cork from every bottle of wine I drank, from April 1995 until April 2012.

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So many years, so many wine corks…

That’s 17 years people! Now, I know you might be thinking, “You must not have drank very much wine then.” Fair enough, but I definitely gave it a good try. Plus, I’d take other people’s discarded corks when I could. The fact of the matter is, wine cork bulletin boards need a cubic crap ton of wine corks. (My 14.5 by 14.5 inch board took 128) You also have to factor in three years of pregnancy and three years of nursing, non-wine drinking years. No, I didn’t have to make that wine cork bulletin board but 22-year-old me thought it was such a cool idea. Besides, it’s fun to collect things, to have a mission to accomplish. And I did eventually make one, it just required a lot of patience. And a shoebox.

Meeeemorieees…of all the wine corks from the past…

Yes, I did see those wine cork bulletin board kits in Skymall magazine over the years, but I felt like that was cheating. Besides, who wants to spend that much on a cork board kit!? Not this frugal crafter. My board would have more meaning. I would look at each cork and remember when and where I drank each bottle with fond memories while staring dreamily off into the distance.  Umm, no. That’s not what happens. I couldn’t tell you where I got each of those corks if you offered me a lifetime supply of wine (or dark chocolate).

Six wine corks short of a board…

My lifelong cork project finally came to fruition when I happened across a premade frame designed specifically for wine corks. Seriously, they make them. I found mine at Bed, Bath & Beyond (in the Beyond section) for only $24.95. Amazon has Wine Cork Boards Kits just like it, too. Once I got it home, I immediately pulled out my shoebox of corks and began laying them out to see if I had enough. I. Did. Not. Nope, I was about six corks short of a board. I made the whole thing very dramatic by yelling “noooooo!!!” with my arms stretched above my head and my head flung back.

Wine is delicious (and necessary) to collect wine corks…

What do you think I did next? Yep, I went out and bought two bottles of wine. I couldn’t buy just any wine, though, it needed to be wine with cute corks. I couldn’t finish out my collection with a bunch of Gallo corks now could I? It took me another month before I had enough corks. By that point in my life, I really didn’t drink very much anymore. I mostly use wine for cooking, but that month I made myself drink it. Yes, wine is delicious, I just don’t like to be drunk, so it took me a while.

Super Cool Wine Cork Bulletin Board

Once I had my six wine corks, I set to work on my super cool wine cork bulletin board. The glue included sucked, so I had to hot glue them all onto the board. I was getting really excited at that point. I imagined all the fun things I’d pin to the board. I finished it and hung it on my kitchen wall. Hmm, it seemed so small. I pinned a few things to it and quickly realized that if I pinned a bunch of stuff to it, no one would be able to see any of the corks! What the what!? What fresh Hades was this? This was not super cool. What had I done?

Choose your trash craft supply hoarding wisely…

I’ll tell you what. I wasted over a decade saving trash in order to make a useless cork board. I could have come up with so many different, cute alternatives over the years, using much more functional cork board. So when I see projects on Pinterest requiring a kajillion bottle caps or soda tabs or whatnot, I say no. No more beverage lids for me. I need to save space for all the toilet paper rolls, pasta sauce jars, and wine bottles I plan to eventually use for a bunch of different projects.

How many wine corks does a wine cork garland need anyway?

If you decide you want to make a wine cork bulletin board, don’t hoard corks, just buy a bag of them. Save yourself the time, the space, and the effort. Here, I’ll even shop for you. You can get a bag of ” target=”_blank” rel=”nofollow”>130 Assorted Printed Wine Corks for only $13.70 on Amazon. Trust me on this. Now back to that wine cork garland I saw on Pinterest. How many corks do you think I’d need for that? What about you? Have you ever saved and hoarded items on a large scale to be used for a craft project? Confession time!