Gnome for the Holiday! A Tutorial

 Gnomes or Tomte or Nisse.....Oh My!
Whatever name you give them, you have to admit they are awfully cute!

I guess I am a little "GNOME obsessed" this year. 

When you see how easy it is to make your own Tomten I am sure you will want to join in the fun!

 I have always loved the wonderful book by Astrid Lindgren about the little Tomten.

These are the 8 inch versions that we made for the Festival of trees decor.

Supplies:

thrift store sweaters

costume wig

fiber fill

styrofoam ball

glue gun

wooden bead

Steps:

• Cut the sweater sleeve long enough to tuck into the top and bottom of the toilet paper roll.
• Glue the styrofoam ball on top of the sweater.
• Glue on some fiber fill and a fluffy piece of the wig.
• Sew a triangular hat out of another sweater sleeve.  Use an area that has ribbing for the bottom of the hat.
• Glue the hat over the ball.  Fluff the beard and trim as needed.
• Glue the wooden bead nose very close to the edge of the hat.

After we made these Gnomes, I started to see the little creatures everywhere in all the fancy gift shops.

These are for sale on Etsy for $35.







Look!  You can buy 3 Gnomes for a mere $19.00 marked down from $24!

And this guy is super cute....but costs $19 too.







You know me....this was a challenge to see if I could DIY some little gnomes for our Christmas tree.
Instead of cardboard tubes and sweater sleeves, this version uses 3 to 4 inch chunks of birch logs.
These Tomtens are pretty fancy with their "cashmere caps" made from a worn out sweater.
The beards are made from the costume wigs.

Ahh....then I remembered that our AxMan Surplus store always carries scraps of sheepskin that must be left from cutting rugs or something!  I scored a great big piece for $3.50. I knew it would make a perfect Gnome beard!

You can certainly use the cardboard tube and sweater technique if you don't want to take the trouble to cut up a birch log.


The end result is every bit as cute!

I hope this has inspired you to create some elfin magic of your own!

Have a Wonderful Day!

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