this precious life.: Wine Cork Blackboard

THIS project is one that I've had in mind for well over a year! I first saw something like it at an antique store and couldn't wait until the opportunity presented itself to try making one myself! When I discribed it to my aunt while in Ohio several weeks ago, she caught on with my vision and gave me a whole bowl of wine corks to work with! The end result of this wine cork chalkboard that I made for her {as pictured} still needs a few tweaks in it's design but I'm happy with how the first one turned out:)

So you want to make one too?! Read on:)

You'll need:

1 slate chalkboard

1 thin wooden board | Black paint | Tile grout {click here for chalkboard paint "recipe"}

then

a pile of wine corks

and

a hot glue gun

{If you do have a slate chalkboard to use that's awesome! You can skip this step & should be able to apply the other steps well}

For the board, I took a very thin piece of wood that had been sanded to give it a smooth surface and applied two coats of chalkboard paint {click *here* for the paint "recipe"}. After the last coat of paint had dried, I lightly sanded it to smooth the rough spots. Then Micah cut it to the size I wanted. Now it was ready for the corks!

The number of corks you'll need depends on how large your board is and how many rows of corks you wish to make. So before you start gluing, lay them out on the floor and get an idea of your dimensions.

Then grab your hot glue gun and start gluing!! It might be a trial and error process for the first few but you'll get the hang of it. Once you have the glue on the cork, slap it down really quickly because it hardens so fast! Applying lots of pressure helps as well.