Drinking & Crafting: DIY Wine Cork Ball

We've been accumulating quite the wine cork collection throughout the past seven years of our marriage, and lately the situation has been getting a little out of control. There's a large glass vase that's overflowing with corks in our kitchen, plus a plastic bag full of them in our closet. Eventually I figured I'd do some cool crafty project with them and have been pinning lots of fun ideas on Pinterest:

[Wine Cork Decorative Tray Filler]

[Wine Cork Tray]

[Wine Cork Wreath]

[Wine Cork Ball]

The one that really caught my eye was this last photo of a wine cork ball. I mean, is this funky or what? Overall it looked pretty easy, if just a little time-consuming. I had to make one for myself! So I bought a 6" styrofoam ball at Hobby Lobby for about $3 (with a coupon) and spray painted it gold. (When it's all said and done there will be some gaps here and there, and you don't want white showing through.)

Once the paint had dried, I loaded up my trusty glue gun and went to town. There's really no rhyme or reason to how to attack this project--you just kinda go for it. Since I decided to mix together red & white wine corks (no discrimination here), I tried to keep the red ones evenly spaced out. And I pressed on each cork for a few seconds after gluing it down just for good measure. Also, since there are some slight variations in the lengths of corks, it's important to make sure you use ones that are all the same length if you want a perfectly round shape in the end.

Halfway through...

After a couple of hours, I had used more than 100 wine corks and only about half of the ball was covered.  Yeesh!  Not wanting to completely use up years worth of our wine corks all at once (I'm weird like that), I decided to just order some more online to finish the project. I found quite a few sources on Etsy for bulk used wine corks and purchased a package of 100 for about $15 (including shipping). 

A few days later when my corks arrived, I immediately got my glue gun back out to finish the project. Once all the wine corks were added, the ball was about 10" in diameter, so it's fairly substantial and also heavier than I would have thought. Finally, I stepped back to admire my work in all of its three-dimensional glory. Please bear with me for a slew of gratuitous pictures as I tried to find the best place to display my masterpiece.

Frankly, I'm pretty tickled with the end result. Even if you can buy something like this in a store somewhere (I've never seen one myself), each cork is different which makes my wine cork ball one-of-a-kind. Anyone can do this--just be prepared to use a lot of corks and glue! Oh, and it probably goes without saying but you'll feel craftier and more inspired if you drink some wine while you're at it.

So, what do you think? Have you done any wine cork crafting?

Linking up to:
Lou Lou Girls Fabulous Party
One Project at a Time @ A Bowl Full of Lemons
Share Your Stuff Tuesdays @ Table for Seven
{wow me} Wednesday @ Ginger Snap Crafts
Look What I Made Wednesday @ Creations by Kara