How to Make Wine Cork Hot Plates

Remove the glass from a picture frame that is the desired size of your wine cork hot plate. Put the cardboard back into the frame.

Glue a wine cork in a horizontal position to the top right corner of the picture frame cardboard with hot glue. Position the wine cork so the top, or thickest, end of the cork rests against the inside edge of the frame. Glue another horizontal wine cork below the first one with the bottom, or narrowest, end of the cork resting against the inside edge of the frame. The sides of the wine cork should be flush.

Glue a third wine cork to the cardboard in a vertical position against the ends of the first two wine corks. Place the thick end of the vertical cork so that it rests against the top of the inside of the picture frame. Glue a fourth wine cork beside the third wine cork, also in a vertical position, but with the narrow end resting against the frame. Make sure that the ends of the corks are flush.

Repeat Steps 2 and 3 to fill the top row of the picture frame with wine corks, alternating the horizontal and vertical positioning. If the wine corks do not fit the frame exactly at the ends, cut the corks with a craft knife to fit the frame. Place any cut corks so that the cut edges are facing the inside edge of the frame.

Repeat Steps 2, 3 and 4 to add as many rows as you need to fill the inside of the picture frame. Alternate the position of the wine corks at the beginning of each successive row. For example, begin row two with two wine corks placed vertically, side by side. Row three will look like row one. The resulting hot plate will have a checkerboard design.

Cut a strip of 1/2-inch-wide ribbon to fit the perimeter of the frame. Glue the ribbon along the top edge of the frame and the corks around the perimeter to camouflage any cut sections of cork. This step may not be necessary if the wine corks fit perfectly inside the edges of the frame.