I used the corks from wine bottles to make a back splash in my bar area, and also behind the desk area in my kitchen which I use as a bulletin board.

We were just at a museum recently where an artist made an american flag out of found bits of red, white and blue plastic (bottle caps and such). It came out incredibly well and had a really interesting texture to it.

So I suppose you could do the same thing with any kind of image you wanted...your imagination is your only hold back.

Here is a link that might be useful: Flag of plastic

Annie I love that!!! Did you attach them directly to the wall or to a backer that you then attached to the wall? How did you determine design and spacing? Wanna come do mine? I've been saving corks for a project - just never knew what kind!

The coolest art (recycled) that I have seen lately was a picture made out of the labels on fruits and veggies - the little round sticky labels that have the product number on them. I don't remember the subject of the picture but it used thousands of the labels. That's imagination.
Diane

I've always liked the idea of repurposing items for home decor. Recently saw interesting chandies at Arhaus which use wine bottles.

Here is a link that might be useful: wine bottle chandeliers

I'd be looking in the Trash to Treasure forums or other craft forums. The people over there are amazing.

DH made me a jig to hold the corks while I cut them in half with a hack saw. I then glued them directly to the wall with my hot glue gun. I figured if I used tile, the sheet rock would come down with it if I ever removed it, so why not just stick them on, and deal with the sheet rock if i ever remove them...though i doubt i will...i really like how they came out. The bar area took 200 corks, the desk area took 300. Placing them is no different than tile except the corks are more forgiving.

Our elementary school did a huge, beautiful circular mural with hundreds, perhaps thousands, of different colored bottle caps. It was a great use of the tops, and was a fun project for the kids! It turned out amazing...I wish I had a picture!

Or there's always something like this: ;)

Here is one that I did a while back. Pretty much, the whole thing is recycled/repurposed in one way or another. It's in our master bathroom.

The 3 cans on the left were tea bag containers from Harry and Davids given to me as gifts. I sprayed them, wrapped twine (that I found in the garage) around and now use them to hold cotton swabs, Q-tips and pocket change left over at the end of the day.

The picture is of our kids, and I simply converted it to a sketch (in photoshop), and printed it on cardstock that I had.

The shelf was on clearance and needed some re-gluing. It was black. I painted it white, with left over paint.

The jar on the end was a baby food jar, and my daughter made it for me at a Green Festival a few years ago.

{{!gwi}}

Not a masterpiece, by any stretch of the imagination, but it is useful and makes me happy. :)

Annie, your bs is amazing, I saved this picture for my son, I give him bags of wine corks and he hasn't done anything with them yet, I attached a cork bathmat I saw once, thought it was neat ; gotta find the instructions though, I can't remember what the backing was.

Chianti straw bottomed bottles with all colours of dripping wax, I remember those fondly ; they would have a cool retro look today.

While at the San Francisco Childrens Museum this summer, I saw what I think was # 1. Who would ever have thunk! ;o)

Here is a link that might be useful: chandelier

The ultimate repurposing. In the Renwick Gallery. Game Fish.

mixed media: wood, plastic, beads, buttons, poker chips, badminton birdies, ping pong balls, rhinestones, coins, dice, plastic figurines, combs, miniature pinball games, dominoes, chess pieces, pool balls, and other found objects

Here is a link that might be useful: Game Fish