gnome sweet gnome DIY, a cocktail party, and a giveaway
November 20, 2023
Perfect for tiny hands, story telling, doll houses, tree ornaments and gift tie-ons, these little gnomes are a joy to make and give and in fact were favors for a party we had last night. My girlfriends took gnomes and mushrooms home to put on their grandchildren's place settings on Thanksgiving. I loved making them in woodsy colors but think they would be equally cute in reds and greens, or how about ivory and cream, wouldn't that be beautiful. If you'd like to make a set, I have a list of supplies and a DIY tutorial plus two giveaways, yay! Let's jump right in!
But wait! We hosted a birthday party last night and I want to show you the party set up. The pictures show the calm before the guests arrived. The candles and fire were lit and the surfaces were left fairly empty, but when 20 friends settled in there were many plates and glasses looking for spots and it was nice to have the the room for them.
I bought this metal leaf garland a few years ago at Anthropologie, similar here and here.
For fall I hung two strands above my kitchen sink window and hung the toadstools I made last month.
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| Here's a picture of the darling birthday girls. We met long ago when we were young mothers with nursery schoolers. Since we are no longer thrown together with play dates and soccer games, we have devised other ways of getting together. One way is to celebrate birthdays with luncheons five times a year. But, if you have a 0 or a 5 at the end of your birthday age, you get a special party! This party was a potluck with cocktail finger foods. The guys are right behind the camera waiting to get to the food! |
If you have been a long time reader you know I love to create a new peg doll every Christmas. I've made Santas, elves, angels and this year I made gnomes. Let me show you how!
You'll need:
- -2 3/8" wooden peg doll
- -brown or dark green craft paint
- -dried moss, crumbled
- -wool felt in woodsy colors
- -Fabric Glue or white glue
- -Bernat Roving in color Putty
- -5-8mm wood bead
- -small jeweler's O ring
- -red seed beads
- -tiny bits of faux greenery for optional hat embellishment
- -scissors, needle, thread, paintbrush, glue, toothpick
- -template, click here
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| Cut out paper templates as shown, then cut felt pieces, no seam allowance necessary. Whip stitch the hat seam with seam on the outside. Whip stitch a jeweler's O ring to the top. |
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| Paint the peg body with one coat of brown or dark green craft paint and let dry. If you don't have paint, you could use a marker or crayon to color the body. It does not need to be perfect as you will cover it with moss. Paint white glue to body and cover with crumbled dried moss. Let dry. Close cape with a dab of glue at the neck; you might have to secure it with a pin while drying. Dab several drops of glue to the inside rim of hat and pull down over head. |
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| Fold a 3" piece of gray roving in half and pinch it together with a dab of glue in the middle. Dab a wee bit of glue onto the face in between the hat and cape and push in the folded end of the roving. When fully dry, use a toothpick to unfurl the roving. Trim beard to your liking. Glue on the bead nose and embellish the hat. I used 3 red seed beads for holly berries and a bit of dried greenery. That's it! |
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| The tree stump and toadstools are from this post. |
Edited: This giveaway is closed! If one giveaway is good, then two is better--I have two kits to give away. Each kit has all the supplies you need to make 3 gnomes, the only thing you need is glue. If you would like to enter the giveaway, please leave a comment below and give me either your Ravelry name OR your email address, written out this way to avoid the scammers: jane q doe at g mail dot com. Because of mailing costs, this giveaway is only open to addresses in the US lower 48. I'll keep this open for a week.
Thanksgiving in the USA is just days away and I will try to get back here to show you my table, etc., but if I don't, please know that I am deeply grateful for many things in my life, and one of them is you. Thank you so much for supporting my blog by coming here weekly and checking in, allowing me to enter your inbox, and for writing so many kind comments over the years. It means a lot to me. I also hope that you are able to navigate all the publicity around Black Friday and can avoid it if that's what you want to do. I need to avoid it and we do our best to ignore the whole thing. Better things like Thanksgiving and then decorating for Christmas are right around the corner and that's what I'm looking forward to!
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8 Comments
ADORABLE!!! I must make some.
ReplyDeleteding a lin 2 @ aol dot com
Hi Kristen, I’ll ask you not to put my name in for the giveaway since I earlier won the knitted gnome kit you had as a giveaway. These are adorable and will be part of my gifts along with the mushrooms next year. Love your crafts and knitting. As always thanks for the ideas. Oh, I have everything ready to make my turkey stock on Friday. Sue
ReplyDeleteThank you Sue! I am taking those knitted gnomes to a luncheon today to hand them out. There will be six girls at the table and I hope it will be a fun surprise. Hope your Thanksgiving and all the food was great!
DeleteLove these woodsy gnomes! You are one creative lady and I look forward to reading your posts. I would love to try and make these guys. On Ravelry, mikkilayla.
ReplyDeleteThe gnomes are adorable. Your Thanksgiving message is beautiful.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely adorable & appear easy to create. You are so creative! Cindy silkworth at gmail dot com.
ReplyDeleteI am in London right now spending time with my two daughters who work here.They are coming home for Christmas( Bridgeport, TX ) and its the first time we shall be spending that beautiful time together in 5 years!In the tradition of all the Christmases we have spent together while they grew up in Dubai it would be wonderful to make things together.Making these charming gnomes would be a very lovely project. Your house looks so inviting and beautiful. jengodchung@gmail.com
ReplyDeleteYou're so creative in choosing to design the gnomes for Autumn. I esp. like the shades of felt. Thank you for sharing the steps with us, your readers!
ReplyDeleteYou make my day when you make a comment!