If you're a wine lover, you may wince every time you open a bottle and throw away yet another cork. After all, there has to be another use for such sturdy material, right? Read on for some awesome uses for corks, so you'll never have to throw one away again!
Source: Etsy users SimplyMarch, KarasVineyardWedding, AiyaHMPH, and LollipopDay
If you've been shopping at Anthropologie lately, you might have noticed a jar on the checkout counter soliciting wine corks. As it turns out, the store clerks aren't hoarders, but they've been collecting those bottle stoppers for a special window display project to celebrate Earth Day (April 22). The bohemian retailer has teamed up with the Cork Forest Conservation Alliance (CFCA) to promote the use of natural corks and educate shoppers about the sustainable resource. To spark the dialogue, it'll be using more than two million corks in its famously creative window displays this month, and each display will be unique to the store, created by its in-house, visual artists. In addition to staff and shoppers, Whole Foods has also hopped on the bandwagon and agreed to donate corks.
But what, you ask, is to come of these millions of corks when it's time for Anthroplogie to wow us with another jaw-dropping display? The installations will actually be available for "adoption" after Earth Day, in exchange for a contribution to CFCA. Remaining corks will be returned to the organization and recycled through its Cork ReHarvest program.
Want to get creative yourself with all those spare wine corks you have laying around? Anthropologie will be hosting a free workshop series at more than 60 locations during Earth Week, where kids and adults can learn to make cork animals, craft recycled cork planters, and more. Just head to the shop's Facebook page to learn more details.
Come along and check out some of the outstanding cork window displays Anthroplogie's artist have crafted!
If you're one of those people who saves corks, here's a clever way to use them. I spied the idea at a local cheese shop, but this cute reuse of wine corks would work perfectly at any party or wedding.
Here, the store cut a narrow slit halfway down a wine cork to turn it into a stand for a cheese label. Steal this strategy for identifying the foods on your buffet spread or to create DIY placecard holders for your guests. If you and your fiancé are fans of vino, this is a crafty way to incorporate that passion into your party.
Start sharing your big day with our community. Just head to the Wedding Talk group, click "new post," and check the wedding content box.
If you need a reason to justify all the glasses of wine you're consuming, consider the benefits a used up wine cork can offer. Instead of tossing the porous stopper into the recycling bin, reuse it in your own home. It turns out corks make fine knife cleaners. Next time your blades need a cleaning, send a cork in to do the job rather than a rough-sided sponge. Just run the edge of the knife across the cork. It'll leave the steel utensil with a mirror image instead of a scratched and dull surface! Who knew?
Source: Flickr User Stewart
I dislike rubber corks. Sure, I appreciate their usefulness, (rubber corks protect against tainted or "corked" wine) but I simply can't stand them. Rubber corks are much harder to remove than their natural counterparts; I've broken more than one wine opener while trying to pull a rubber cork out; and after the bottle is open, the rubber corks never slide easily back inside. Am I overreacting? Does anyone else have a problem with rubber corks?
Every now and then I'll save a cork from a bottle of wine. Not because I want to remember the occasion or wine, but because it's nice to have extra corks lying around. That's why when I first saw the Corkeeper, a souvenir that holds a cork and two-by-three-inch photo, I thought, "that's kind of ridiculous." But, when I heard that it was created by restaurant owners who would snap a picture of diners that were celebrating special occasions and present it to them after their meal, I changed my mind. What a great way to remember a birthday! What do you think? Is the Corkeeper a fun way to preserve a memory?
How to Pop a Champagne Cork! Whenever there's champagne at a party, I always end up being the cork-popper. It's a relatively new responsibility of mine; just a few years ago I couldn't handle it. I always assumed I'd break a window, or shoot someone's eye out. However, now that I have the hang of it, I actually enjoy it. There's something exciting about the pop! If you wish to learn how to do it, hopefully these tips will help out.
