Guest Blogger Ashleigh Campbell tells you how to build a wine cork snowman with all those leftover wine corks from the holidays, the perfect cozy craft for a snow day or wintry weekend at home.
As I was pulling out my Christmas decorations last year, I realized we have a snowman addiction in our house. Our stocking holders are snowmen, we have seven different Hallmark snowmen that dance and sing, and four more that are just for decoration. I was putting away my wine cork pumpkins when I thought to myself, “If I just stack two on top of each other and add a hat, then I’ve got a snowman!”
I had a lot of fun making a snowman family. I even got my five-year-old son involved and had him decorate the two little snowmen (we don’t trust the 16-month-old with glue). My son loved it and now I have a whole wine cork snowman family to add to our snowman collection!
Materials
- 59 wine corks for large snowman (Sounds like a lot, right? Read on for my tip on where to get a bunch of corks)
- 26 wine corks for a small snowman
- Glue (I recommend a 25 g bottle of Gorilla Super Glue, or plenty of hot glue)
- White and black paint
- Paint brush
- Ribbon (for scarf)
- Brown pipe cleaners (for arms)
- Small black pompoms (for eyes and mouth)
How to Build Your Wine Cork Snowman
1. Create the base of the snowman.
I found that building the wine cork snowman like you would build a regular snowman is the best way to make these. Start by making your base or body. Add the first row of four corks on the bottom, then a row of five corks, then a row of six corks. Finish the top of the base with a row of five corks, then a row of four corks. (For the small snowman, the base will be a row of three corks, then a row of four corks then a row of three corks.)
Next, take your bottom row of corks and glue them together side-by-side. Then, starting in the middle and working your way out, glue the next row of corks to the bottom row, staggering the corks between the corks on the lower row. The corks will not be directly on top of each other so it’s important to eye ball where they sit before committing the design with glue. Repeat with the rest of the rows, stacking as you go.
2. Create the head of the snowman.
Build the head the same way you built the base, but start with a row of three corks, then a row of four corks, then a row of five corks. Finish the head with a row of four corks. Yes, the head will look flat, but that’s where the hat will go! (For the small snowman the head will be a row of two corks, then a row of three corks then a row of two corks.)
3. Add a hat to your snowman.
To build the hat, glue a row of seven corks together side-by-side. Next, glue four corks on top of the row of seven, staggered between the middle five corks. Finish the hat with two rows of four corks glued directly on top of the cork row below it. (For the small snowman, the hat will start off with a row of five corks and the top will be made up of two rows of two corks.)
4. Paint your snowman.
Finally, after your glue has set, it’s time to paint! Paint your snowman’s base and head white. Then, paint the hat black. I only painted the front of the corks, but you can paint the sides, too, if you like.
5. Bring your snowman to life!
Glue the head to the base and then glue the hat to the head. Doing it this way yields a more natural, not-perfectly-symmetric look. If you look at some of mine, you’ll notice the hat is a little crooked too, due to the corks in the top row of the head being bigger or smaller. I love how the tilted hat adds character to the snowmen! Add a ribbon for a scarf. You can use brown pipe cleaners for arms and black pompoms for the eyes and mouth if you want, or leave them plain. I found some cute holly berries at the bottom of one of my holiday bins, so I added them to Momma Snowman’s hat.
When my mom saw these her first comment was “wow, you drink a lot of wine!” Spoiler alert, I got most of these from the local mom’s Facebook group. Don’t get me wrong, with quarantine, work from home, and remote kindergarten, I have earned a lot of corks to work with, but not enough for my snowman family. If you are looking for corks, post in your local Facebook groups or ask your Wine Guide. Most craft stores also carry crafting corks.
We’d love to see your wine cork creations! Tag us using #travelingvineyard or @travelingvineyard on Instagram, and be sure and follow us on Pinterest for more cork crafting ideas!