My children, and I suspect pretty much all children, collect things. Rocks and sticks and dolls. And corks. My son, in particular, loves to dig the corks out of our recycling bin. When I was cleaning something up in his room the other day I found an entire box of them tucked under his desk, just sitting there. While I could have taken them to the local wine shop for the Re-Cork program, I knew he would miss them. So instead I made a much needed message board for his room out of the collection.

Things you’ll need:
Corks, lots of them
Paper mache box the size that you want for a message board
Glue gun and glue sticks
Spray paint, two colors

Things to do:
1. Paint the inside and outside of the box with the two different colors, spraying the inside and top edges first with one color and then flipping the box over and spraying the outer sides with the second color for contrast.

2. Starting at one corner, glue corks along the sides of the box, making sure you dot glue on all surfaces that touch something else to stabilize the corks.

3. Continue to fill the corks in, turning some corks sideways at times as needed to create a tight fit.

4. Allow the glue to set before hanging (here it sits in a recycled clementine crate shelf!)