Similar to our cork Santas on a string, these wine cork nutcracker heads are easy to make out of two wine corks and a string. Add a few extras and you have an adorable ornament for your Christmas tree. They’re great to include when giving a bottle of wine as a gift too!
See all of our Wine Cork Crafts here.
Here’s another quick, easy and adorable nutcracker craft your kids, your teens, or you can make this Christmas for your own tree or to give as a gift.
Champagne corks have a great shape
You can make these nutcrackers with regular wine corks or with champagne corks. The champagne corks are kind of nice because the top half is larger than the bottom, which is perfect for the nutcracker’s hat. Wine corks are perfectly fine though. We used those to make our cork and clothespin nutcrackers and they look great!
How to give with a bottle of wine
A great way to give these ornaments is to include them as an add-on with a bottle of wine. Just twist the string part of the ornament around the neck of the bottle like we have in the photo below and your recipient gets a cute little ornament along with their bottle of wine.
You can do the same with our cork angels, reindeer, snowmen and Santas.
All you need to make these ornaments are 2 wine corks, paint, a cotton ball and some craft gems/beads. They’re really quick and easy to make. There is a bit of wait time while your paint dries, but you can speed that up with a hair dryer, and have a set of these made in about 20 minutes.
Cork Nutcracker Heads Ornament
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Supplies:
How-To:
How to Make Cork Nutcracker Heads on a String
- Paint corks
Paint the top half of your corks black and the bottom half skin-toned.
TIP: Use a wooden skewer to hold your corks so your fingers don’t get painty/mess up the paint. Let dry (or dry with a hair dryer). - Paint nutcrackers’ faces
Paint your nutcrackers’ eyes, nose, mouth, cheeks, eyebrows and moustache.
TIP FOR MOUTH: Make your nutcracker’s mouth look like a real nutcracker’s mouth by painting a band of red and then dotting on the teeth.
TIP FOR EYES: Using the handle of a paintbrush, layer three dots for the eyes – 1st dot: white, 2nd dot: colour, 3rd dot: black.
- Varnish
Brush a coat of clear craft varnish over the cork to protect the paint and to make the colours pop.
- Decorate hat
Glue gems, ribbons etc. to your nutcrackers’ hat, and glue a pony bead to the very top.
- Add beard and hair
Tear 3 small pieces off a cotton ball (beard and sideburns),and glue to the cork.
- Add string
Cut a piece of yarn or twine. Squeeze a bit of glue into each of the pony beads on top of the corks, and pus the ends of the string into the glue.
Hang your adorable nutcrackers on your Christmas tree!
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Jackie is a mom, wife, home daycare provider, and the creative spirit behind Happy Hooligans. She specializes in kids’ crafts and activities, easy recipes, and parenting. She began blogging in 2011, and today, Happy Hooligans inspires more than 2 million parents, caregivers and Early Years Professionals all over the globe.
