Santa Gnome Ornament DIY

Easy to make Gnomes using a cork as a base.

A Tomte, Nisse or Tomtenisse (Sweden), Nisse (Norway and Denmark) or Tonttu (Finland) is a mythological creature from Scandinavian folklore which is typically associated with the winter solstice and the Christmas season. It is generally described as being no taller than three feet, having a long white beard, and wearing a conical or knit cap in red or some other bright color.  The tomte / nisse will deliver gifts at the door, in accordance with the modern-day tradition of Santa Claus.  He usually lives in the forest and travels to homes on a sled with reindeer, but they don't fly.  It's tradition to leave him some porridge with butter as a thanks for his visit.

They often have an appearance similar to a garden gnome and are believed to guard your home and family, protecting them from misfortune, particularly at night, when everyone is asleep. If you take good care of a Tomte, he will protect you and watch over your family!

You'll need:

Wine Corks

Red Felt

White Yarn

Pompoms

Wooden Ball - 3/8"

Decorative Accents

5 yards of yarn folded over until it is about 6" long

I used Yarn Bee Fleece Lite yarn from Hobby Lobby

Tie a piece of yarn around the center of the yarn and make a knot.

Glue the middle of the yarn onto the top of the cork with hot glue.

This is a pdf pattern for the hat - 2 hats fit on half of a 8 1/2 X 11" sheet of paper

Cut the hat out of felt and glue the hanger to the inside of the hat.  Glue the edges together to fit over the yarn and the cork.

Let the yarn hang down over the cork, put hot glue on the bottom edge of the hat and place the hat over the yarn.

You'll need to trim the beard - you can leave it long all around or cut the back a little shorter so it's not quite so shaggy.

Glue the nose and decorations with hot glue.

Wine Cork Santa Ornament Craft

A fun up cycled project that's very easy for all ages!

You will need:

Corks

Pink, red and black acrylic paint

Toothpicks or bamboo skewers

5 mm. red pom poms

Glitter drape for beards

Felt hats - or felt/paper to make your own hat.

Start by painting the cork with pink 1/3 and red 2/3rds.

Add the two eyes by dipping the end of a skewer or toothpick in black acrylic paint and dotting it onto the dry pink face.

I tried using red and black sharpies and also paint pens, but they kept picking up the paint on the tip and didn't work well at all.  Since I am going to be teaching this to kids I wanted to find a way to create the face that was easy.  The paint on the toothpick works great.

Glue a red pom pom on for the nose.

Cut the beard out of the Glitter Drape, basically a triangle with the top cut down in a curve.

Glue it onto the front of the cork just under the nose.

I bought this at the Dollar Tree and used it folded so it was 2 layers.  I took the glitter off.

You could use cotton wool, but this was really easy to use and very inexpensive.

I found these hats at Hobby Lobby, I had to stretch the bottom a little and then they fit perfectly.

If you want to hang them on the tree glue a thread or wire ornament hanger to the back of the hat.

These would make a cute hostess gift hanging from a bottle of wine!

They're a Jolly Bunch!

Student Santas