You know when you go to Ikea to buy an entertainment center and the “directions” seem to look so
easy, then 48 simple steps and two swollen thumbs later, you’ve got yourself a nice, slightly  lopsided, TV stand?  Well, since jumping on the Pinterest train, we have found cork crafts and cocktail concoctions for days, all looking so easy to do on our own.  We continuously found ourselves thinking, “We could totally do that,” until one day when we decided to give it a try. That day was today.

After scourging ABC’s boards to find a reasonable starter project (we didn’t want our first attempt found on one of those “Pinterest Fail” websites), we came across this one.

Looks easy, right? Well we’re here to tell you that it is, in fact, pin-possible, providing you have a few of the originally unlisted helpful hints that we compiled along our own wreath-building journey.

When we pulled out our supplies for the wreath, we realized we were missing a crucial tool: the drill

bit. Here’s tip number one:  Find someone who has a drill bit. Con them into helping. As we traipsed the halls of our office, we ran into Jim Dekle, our CIO. Quizzically he inquired, “How are you going to hold the cork while you drill?” rendering us speechless and him sympathetic. “I’ll meet you in the conference room with a drill bit in a minute,” he said.

Moments later, there he was drilling the first cork of our wreath and theoretically snipping the ribbon of our new series of blog posts. He also provided us with a pair of pliers we used as a vise grip—helpful tip no. 2.

Jim left us to be with our supplies and enthusiasm, and off we went on the drilling adventure.  Meghan started drilling two holes in each cork, while Hannah strung the corks using floral wire, spacing with a red bell between each cork in the top row.  By the way, simply drilling the cork once doesn’t cut it. Tip three:  move the drill bit in and out of the cork several times to ensure there is a hole wide enough to put the wire through.

Slowly, our cork-wreath started to take shape, between the finger poking and wire tangling, of course.  We followed the original Pinterest post article exactly as it said, but noticed some changes needed to be made in order to achieve a better looking craft.  First, we used 27, not 22 as suggested, corks. Tip four: the amount of supplies needed may depend on the size of the supplies. Have extra on hand. We also used a hot glue gun to secure a bow on top of our wreath, which you may or may not choose to do yourself. 

All in all, it was easier to achieve the finished product than we expected. Some corks were easier to drill through than others (like Chateau St. Michelle corks), so experiment with a couple before you start on the whole project.  We spent about $10 on supplies, not including the wine someone drank to provide corks (have to drink wine… bummer) or the tools (drill, wire cutter, glue gun).  With two crafters present, it took us about an hour and a half to complete the cork-wreath from start to finish.

 

Required:  patience, a collection of wine corks, tough fingers, and some more patience.

Verdict?

Stay tuned for more Pinterest inspired DIY project attempts and keep scrolling for more pictures from this week's project! 

  

 

 

 

 

Good luck everyone! 

Cheers,

Hannah Grantz and Meghan Guarino