Crafty Kels | THE KEY OF KELS

Do you remember Anthropologie’s Earth day window displays? They used over 2.5 million wine corks and created some incredible art in all of their stores throughout the United States. They made designs, planters, streamers, animals… You name it. And it was fantastic. Especially for a wino like myself. I can’t get enough.

Seriously, check out this video…

I’ve been thinking about those displays ever since April, and when we moved into our new place and were deciding on how to decorate I decided to give it a try. We needed a cork board. And I love this idea.

Lucky for me, I work at a bar in a restaurant where we sell a lot of wine. And I saved a ton of corks last April for decorations at our wedding. But I felt very Green when I decided to put all that drinking to use. Because I believe in drinking and recycling, folks. California has obviously made me very environmentally conscious. I recycle the wine bottle and save the cork. And I always bring my reusable bags to the grocery store. Anything I can do to help, Mother Nature. Anything I can do to help…

Here’s how I created my own little version of the Anthro display. Part cork board and part art!

Brad and I headed over to the hardware store and picked up a few things. Three round wooden table tops, chalkboard spray paint (originally I want these to be multi-purpose chalkboard/cork boards, but things changed a bit), hanging fixtures, and wood glue.

First things first, I spray painted the table tops black. Primer then another coat.

Then, once the paint dried, I got to messing around with a design. I tried to separate the corks stained purple by red wines and use the colors in the designs. Here’s what I came up with. No Anthropologie amazingness, but pretty freaking cool.

Using the wood glue, I glued on the corks, section by section, going back and putting pressure on the corks to make sure they were on tight.

I even added a few more corks in after dinner (and a few glasses of wine.. More corks, mnore cork crafts!). I feel like drunk craft inspiration is dangerous, but always adds character.

Then I started on the smaller boards. I went for a little different design here…

End result? We have homemade awesome wino art and our Shy Cherry has a nice little centerpiece. I probably won’t want to hang anything on them – at least for now – because they’re just so awesome to look at. But the corks are sturdy and can absolutely hold a few thumbtacks.

Now off to start saving corks again… Cheers!

So when a girl (Kelly Bylsma) gets married to an incredible man (Brad Mathews) and decides she wants to take his name and form a little family, it sounds so beautiful and romantic and fantastic. And the marriage part and the little family part is! But then the girl realizes changing her name involves so much more than just practicing her signature over and over again….

Along with my social security card, drivers license, cable bill, tax forms, work information and bank accounts, I realized today (almost six months after becoming Kelly Mathews) that I also had to change my name on my business cards.

(And while I was making that list I realized a few more things I still haven’t changed my name on… uuugh)

Anyway, so this week I am attending six events put on by “Social Media Week: Los Angeles“. With the internship I’ve been doing over at Mixtape Media hopefully progressing into a paying job in the next few weeks, I am super excited to get out there and learn as much as I can about the Social Media world. I am also excited to meet a lot of new people in this big city who are excited about the same things I am excited about. And since this is a huge networking opportunity, I went looking for the most appropriate business cards to hand out.