Monday, November 21, 2011

30 Days: Day Six - a Hostess Gift

This post is really two thoughts in one....

First Thought:
One of the best things about the Holiday season is the festive parties. Everyone gets dressed up, listens to some classic Holiday party music and proceeds to get both merry and bright. You have to love it. But one of the struggles of attending so many parties is coming up with a decent hostess gift. While dish towels and ornaments tend to be over-gifted, a good bottle of wine usually does the trick... but it's common. How can you get your $7 bottle of wine to look better than the showoff's $30 bottle?

Second Thought:
Sometimes, I see adorable wine cork art and instantly fall in love. As it just so happens, I have an insane amount of corks because people have been saving them for me for the last few years... But not everyone has that kind of stash on hand. I understand. That's why this adorable little "icing on the cake" hostess gift only requires 3 corks.

We could go through that much wine in about 2 hours with my crazy family.

So here is what you need to make your bottle look like the best hostess gift ever:

Supplies:
1. 3 wine corks, preferably with red wine stains on the cork
2. A Hot glue gun. If you don't have one, you should probably stop reading this blog, because I don't do anything without mine.
3. Ribbon
4. A decent knife



Steps:
1. Cut your 3 corks in half. I found that it's pretty easy to do when they are dry.




2. Take 1 of your halves and cut it in half again.

3. Hot glue your corks together in the shape of a Christmas tree. Use one of the 1/4 corks in the middle of the bottom row. Be sure that they all appear level from the front (even though they are probably different sizes).



4. Pick a festive ribbon to go around your tree, and hot glue it in place.



5. Use the remaining 1/4 cork as the stump and glue to the ribbon.



6. I added a ribbon to the top of my tree, but any fun kind of embellishments you come up with would work real well.

7. Create a loop so that you can hang your tree around your $7 bottle of wine that tastes exactly the same as the $30 bottle.



8. Accept compliments graciously when your hostess gift turns everyone's head at the next Holiday Party.



Oh yah, don't forget to keep eating the candy out of your countdown calendar when you finish a craft!

1 comment:

  1. This is a great idea! I have a lot of corks but I'm saving them for larger projects that require a ton of corks. This is a great way to use just a few but get the same impact. I am gifting a bottle of wine on Friday and this would be perfect to add on!

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