How To Make A Valentine Heart From Wine Corks

January 27, 2016

Valentine Heart

Last week, I scanned Pinterest to find ‘How to Make A Valentine Heart From Wine Corks’. Checking out several sites gave me some information on how to go about this. Not all information you find on the internet is that good. In the end, I came up with an easier option that seemed to work well.

You may be asking, “How do I glue wine corks together?”

Sophie and I drew a heart shape on freezer paper and we tried to glue the corks together. What glue do you use for gluing wine corks? On one of the sites, it was suggested to use a hot glue gun. Yeah, that did not work so well. After we had glued the perimeter, we picked the wreath up and the thing fell apart in several places! The hot glue did not hold. Maybe I have inferior hot glue?

Using the outline on the freezer paper did not work very well either. Being very careful, I try to follow the edge. Still, one cork went all wonky, and the outline was not right. Okay, looking at the picture, maybe more than one went wonky! To say the least, the heart was misshapen.

Sophie had to go home and I left this project on the counter in frustration. For several days, it taunted me. Feeling defeated, I was about to toss the whole mess.

Valentine Heart Plan 2

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Then, I had an epiphany. Why not use a heart-shaped cake pan?

First, I lined the pan with Reynolds Wrap aluminum foil. Then, using Aleene’s Tacky Glue, I began to glue the outside row together, following the shape of the pan. Note that the end of the cork pointing up is the end of the bottle opener punctured. The bottom side will be flat, (the corks are not all the same length or diameter) and will be flat with no holes from the opener.

This seemed to be working well! That is when I decided to make a heart-shaped decoration for the mantel instead of a wreath.

As the corks were added, some need a line of glue applied to two, three, or four sides, when the corks butted up together. Adding one at a time, I fill the entire cake pan and waited for a half-hour for the glue to completely dry.

Then, turn the pan over and release the corks. The heart shape looked great! This worked so much better!

The next step is painting. I decided to paint only the tops of the wine corks, which took no time at all. Light ivory by Ceramcoat was painted on with a small stiff hog bristle brush.

After the paint dried, I quickly paint Mod Podge over the ivory paint and sprinkle clear glitter on top of the wet Mod Podge, so it acts like glue.

Other Uses for Wine Corks

Not that there is an abundance of these in my humble home, but I have also come up with some clever, cheap tricks with wine corks! A while back, I was placing one of the potted orchids in an urn. The orchid was too low. I racked my brain to think of something that would raise the pot just enough. The idea of gluing wine corks together, to create a lift, came to my mind.

It worked perfectly! I’ve used this little trick many times in my home. It also works for those items on top of cabinets. Sometimes just a little lift is needed to see the item perfectly. These corks can easily be glued together with Tacky Glue to make whatever size is needed.

I hope this post on How to Make a Valentine’s Heart With Wine Corks inspires you to create something beautiful out of wine corks, too. Looking for more Valentine’s ideas?