DIY Toilet Paper Roll Gnomes

You either love them or hate them but you can’t deny they are cute.

Working in a Christmas store each holiday season gives me the wonderful advantage of seeing all of the latest trends in Christmas decorations.  If you haven’t noticed, adorable and cuddly looking little gnomes are everywhere!

With their big hats, long beards, and beaded noses, they have become a fun and silly little icon of whimsical holiday decorations. I have seen them as Christmas ornaments, lined up as shelf sitters, painted on signs, and even as sassy stuffed little statues. 

As much as I tried to avoid pulling them in to my home over the last few years, I can’t deny that their charm has won me over it seems. This year I have embraced a few crafty projects like my gnome storage jars, my gnome garden sign, and now this project for DIY Toilet Paper Roll Gnomes as leggy shelf sitters.

This post contains affiliate links which help to support this blog.  My wish is that through these links you will find something wonderful for your home.

 

 

 

THIS POST IS PART OF THE SUSTAINABLE PINTEREST CHALLENGE.  THIS MONTH’S THEME IS Christmas.

My version of a shelf sitting Christmas gnome was inspired by this pin for a gnome combined with a toilet roll yarn hat.   Since I have been making those little yarn hats for a couple of years for gift tags and gift tags, these gnomes not only reuse an these little yarn hats but also empty toilet paper rolls at the same time.

 

Below is a list of the creative bloggers participating this month.  Be sure to read to the end of this post to see the link for each Sustainable Upcycled project.

 

Julie | Sum of their Stories   Gail | Purple Hues and Me   Julie | Treasures Made From Yarn   

T’onna | Sew Crafty Crochet Niki | Life as a LEO Wife  Mel | Decor Craft Design  Christine | Christine’s Crafts  

Vicky | Vicky Myers Creations  Donna | Modern on Monticello  Allyson | Southern Sunflowers

 Ann | The Apple Street Cottage  Jo | A Rose Tinted World

 

 

For this project I used:

• Empty Toilet Paper Rolls
• Green and Red Felt
• Jute Twine
• Rice
• White and Gray Yarn
• Hot Glue and Glue Gun
• Scissors
• Wood Beads
• Wood Snowflakes and Stars
• Household items like scissors, ruler, pencil, and an 8 inch bowl

 

 

To create the body of the gnome, I basically made it up as I went along, and thankfully it worked out. 

First things first, I traced the outline of an 8″ bowl on the red and green felt with a pencil and cut it out with scissors.

 

 

Next, I cut an empty toilet paper roll in half. This will be used to make the body of the gnome.  Since I wanted these gnomes to sit on a shelf, the toilet paper roll gave it a more solid structure to sit upright.

 

 

After cutting out the circle and cutting the empty toilet paper roll in half, I glued the half toilet paper roll in the center of the circle and filled it with rice.

 

 

 

Gnomes aren’t meant to look perfect so I just gathered up the edges of the felt circle around the toilet paper roll and tied it off with a string of jute twine.  I knew the beard would hide the folds in the felt anyway.

 

 

 

Next came the beard!

To make the beard, I wrapped some gray yarn around my hand 70 times to create a tassel.  A tassel is easy to make by tying off one end of a bunch of looped yarn, and cutting the other end.  This gray yarn tassel was hot glued over the top portion of the body of the gnome where the felt is tied with the jute twine.

 

 

 

 

Then add on the little yarn hat with glue.  For this part I had to stuff the top part of the tassel inside the little yarn hat and glue in place.   Glue on a wood bead for the nose and any decorative wood cutout on the front of the body of the gnome.  I had both stars and snowflakes in my craft room stash so that is what I used.  You can skip this part if you don’t want to add any decorative pieces to the body of the gnomes.

Read below on how to make the yarn hat!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Making the yarn hats

As I have mentioned already, I had the little yarn hats in my craft room stash from previous projects so I just reused them.  Several years ago I think I shared a post on how to make these adorable little yarn hats, but I will quickly show you again how easy they are to make.

Here are the steps along with photos to follow.

Measure and cut a 1/2″ section off the end of a empty toilet paper roll.  This will become the folded up band of the yarn hat when you are done. 

 

 

Measure and cut many pieces of yarn at about 10 inches each.  They don’t have to be exact or perfectly cut either.

 

 

Take each piece of yarn, create a loop around the 1/2″ ring that you have already cut off from the empty toilet paper roll and pull tight.  Continue this step all the way around the toilet paper ring until it is completely covered.

 

 

 

 

 

Once the entire toilet paper ring is covered in yarn, flip the yarn pieces through the center of the ring to create the look of the band of a hat.

 

 

Gather the strings together and tie them off with another piece of yarn.  Cut off the ends of the strings and you have created a pom pom top to your little yarn hat.

 

 

 

 

I made three of these little adorable gnomes to sit on a shelf, or the mantel in my home this Christmas. 

 

 

Finally, the Wood Bead Dangling Legs

To make these sitting gnomes even more adorable, I decided to create some dangling legs for them.  I strung 7 wood beads on a piece of jute twine for each leg, tied off the ends, and glued the two strands of the wood beads to the underside of each gnome.

 

 

Place the gnomes on a shelf and allow the legs to dangle over the side. They are so cute that way just chillin’ and hanging out together.

 

 

Before you click away from this post, be sure to visit all of the other talented bloggers who participated this month in the Sustainable Pinterest Challenge by visiting their links below.

 

 

Hugs,

Hebrews 11:6 “Now without faith it is impossible to please God, since the one who draws near to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”