Rustic Christmas Gnomes

We have enjoyed providing families with keepsake Christmas gifts each year and this year is no different. We came across these adorable gnomes from 100 Things to Do and thought that we’d put our own spin on it; rustic, natural, and Christmassy.

We purchased a 2″X8″X8′ piece of spruce for about $13 from our local hardware store and used a chop saw to make triangles. We set an angle on the chop saw to make an isosceles triangle and flipped it after every cut. Next we put tape around the gnome that would later be removed. The tape portion became the gnome’s face. We ended up cutting our tape in half length wise in order to be thin. Then we invited the children to paint one colour for the gnome’s hat and another for his body. We just used acrylic craft paint from the dollar store. After the paint dried the children used sand paper to sand the edges. We used a coarse sand paper since we work with 4 and 5 year olds and wanted them to have the greatest opportunity to be successful. Lastly, we cut fake fur beards, moustaches, and eyebrows to be hot glued on. Love how some of the gnomes ended up with squirrelly eyebrows. Keep in mind the direction the fur is going when cutting. The nose is just a small pompom. Of course, the children wrote their own names on the bottom and we added the year. There’s nothing better than a child’s handwritten name on a keepsake.

Materials

• 2″X8″X8′ spruce or other wood
• tape(painters or masking)
• acrylic paint
• sand paper(we used coarse)
• fur from fabric store
• hot glue gun
• pompoms

Our families have been thrilled with their gifts and we’re so happy to bring them this keepsake that will bring back cherished memories for years to come.