Recycled champagne cork owl ornament tutorial

Champagne corks have a unique mushroom shape and I may have odd vision but it sure looked like an owl to me.  Gather your supplies  (inexpensive ones I might add) and you can make one too. If you don't have a champagne cork you can substitute a regular wine cork. Not a wine or champagne drinker?  You can always purchase wine and champagne corks inexpensively online at Etsy.com!  Play around with feather colors too...wouldn't he be cute as a snowy owl using all white feather?

You will need:

·      Champagne cork

·      Small brown/green feathers

·      Tacky craft glue

·      Paper punches, small circle and small square

·      Yellow cardstock paper

·      Black cardstock paper

·      Two small wiggle eyes (a size that will fit in the center of your paper punched circles)

·      Small eye screw

·      1/8” wide gold ribbon to fit around the neck area

·      Small awl or nail

·      Scissors

·      12” gold cord for hanging

1.     Use the paper punch to cut out two circles from the yellow card stock.  Attach a wiggle eye in the center of each circle with some tacky glue and set aside.  Punch a square with the square paper punch from black cardstock paper and use scissors to cut diagonally for an elongated triangle.

2.     Use the awl to drill a hole on each side of the cork right under the narrow part. (Neck area)  Choose two larger feathers; dip the shafts into some tacky glue and insert in the holes you made on the sides of the cork. (Wings made)  Let dry.

3.     Begin gluing feathers by running a bead of tacky glue on the body of the cork and attaching feathers one by one. (See photo) You may have to cut the ends of the shaft to fit.  Continue gluing feathers all around to cover the front and back of the cork body. Let dry.  Cut a piece of 1/8” wide gold ribbon to fit around the neck and use some tacky glue to attach. 

4.     Use some tacky glue to attach the black triangle beak to the head and then attach the wiggle eyes/yellow paper on each side.  Let all the glued areas dry completely. (See photo)  Use an awl to drill a hole in the top center of the head and attach an eye screw.

5.    Cut a piece of gold cord and add to the eye screw for hanging.