Heart Decoration

Any time is a good time of year to celebrate love, right? Show off your button collection with this sweet wall décor. This is also a good project for your not-so-interesting corks, since they are being used as a craft material rather than the aesthetic focus.

You will need:

* Hot glue gun

* 25 wine corks

* Paintbrush

* Craft paint

* 25 assorted buttons 5⁄8" in diameter or smaller

* Metal picture hanger

  1. Glue corks together in a heart shape, as shown in the illustration.
  2. Paint the heart and let it dry. You can repeat for better coverage if you like, or leave it translucent like I did. (If you are going for a more opaque finish, you could prime it first.)
  3. Glue on buttons.
  4. Attach the hanger to the back of the heart with glue or the small nails it may come with.

Storing Wine

Bottles with real corks should be stored on their sides to maintain contact between the cork and the wine. Without this contact, the cork may dry out, shrink, and let in air. This does not apply to bottles with synthetic corks, but make sure such bottles are still stored in cool, dark places.