Hello dear friends! Today I am sharing how to make some trendy DIY Nordic Christmas gnomes for the Thrifty Chicks’ November challenge: spools. I had originally planned to upcycle spools into Christmas ornaments, but after seeing all the adorable Christmas gnomes popping up everywhere, I decided to try to make a few using wooden spools for the bodies.  I think they turned out so cute! 

This little trio of DIY Nordic Christmas gnomes fits just perfectly in the farmhouse dough bowl that I just scored at a thrift store. I haven’t really started decorating for Christmas just yet, but I can already tell I am going to have a lot of fun styling these cute gnomes in different holiday vignettes! I am also loving my new “Merry Christmas” farmhouse sign which was handmade by my talented friend Laney of Pine.and.Birch.

Scandinavian/Swedish/Nordic Christmas gnomes are all the rage this year! Recently I found this cute Rae Dunn “Magic” Christmas gnome canister at Marshalls and I couldn’t resist adding just one more Rae Dunn piece to my collection.

I didn’t want to purchase any Christmas gnome decor this year, but as I was looking at some of the cute gnomes the other day at Home Goods I realized that I could easily make a few DIY Nordic Christmas gnomes using wooden spools for the bodies.The gnomes were so fast and simple to make! Best of all I made three gnomes for around $10.00 with leftover material to make a few more gnomes.

I chose round wood knobs for the heads, small wood hearts for the feet, and wooden spools for the bodies. All of these items can be purchased at Jo Ann Fabric or Hobby Lobby. I have seen several tutorials for Christmas gnomes which use different materials, but I think the wooden spools are a great choice for the bodies since they are sturdy and easily stay standing upright.

Materials Used: Wood spools for the body, wood knobs for the heads, small wood balls for the noses,  wood hearts for the feet, black paint, sponge brush, hot glue gun, scissors, several pieces of colored felt, floral wire.

I used black chalk paint and a sponge brush to paint the wooden heart “feet.” The little wooden balls in this picture were a bit too small for the gnome noses. After looking at several pictures of Christmas gnomes I realized that their noses are quite large, so I purchased some larger wooden balls at Hobby Lobby.

I purchased a few sheets of inexpensive felt in tan, olive green, and red for the clothing.

Gray Fab Lab faux fur was used for the beards on two of the gnomes. I loved the wispy texture of the white furry “blooming holiday” floral pick so I cut one of the little fur balls apart and used it for a beard on the third gnome.  I didn’t end up using the white Fab Lab fur but it will certainly come in handy for other Christmas crafts.

After the hearts dried I simply hot glued them on the bottom of the spools making sure to let the feet stick out just a bit over the bottom of the spools. My husband drilled holes through the wooden balls and feet just in case I wanted to make ornaments out of the gnomes.

To make the clothing I cut the felt to fit completely around each spool making sure to leave enough excess felt to cover the wooden edges.

I simply glued the ends together with hot glue. The gnome beards completely cover the seams.

After covering the spools with felt I hot glued a “head” on top of each spool. The round knobs worked great, but I realized that styrofoam balls or small plastic Christmas ornament bulbs might be even cheaper and will work just as well since the entire head will be covered by a hat and beard anyway.

In all actuality, I cannot take full credit for this craft! My husband is super artistic and he whipped up a little hat template for me and cut out the hats while I was super busy working on my Autumn Elegance Thanksgiving Tablescape post for the Gather’ Round The Table Blog Hop. He even drew little hearts on the pattern. He’s a keeper!

After the felt had been cut to match the pattern, each piece was shaped into a cone hat which has slightly uneven sides to give the hats a slouchy look. The ends were hot glued together down the seams. The hats looked cute standing straight up, but the addition of simple floral wire attached with hot glue to the inside of the seams allowed the hats to be bent in whimsical shapes.

I cut the beards just long enough to cover the gnome’s “toes” and to wrap nearly all the way around the head. The top of the beards were hot glued to the heads so that the beards covered the faces leaving only about 1/8 of the top of the wooden ball exposed.

Once the hats were placed over each “fur ball” head, the funny little characters began taking shape! As you can see here, the heart feet aren’t absolutely necessary if the beards are super long.

The last step was to hot glue on the wood noses. Easy peasy!

Aren’t they just adorable?

These DIY Christmas gnomes were “easy as magic” to make!

I hope this post has inspired you to make some DIY Nordic Christmas gnomes! With an adult supervising the use of the hot glue gun, this craft is easy enough for kids and could be a great family Christmas craft activity. Since Nordic gnomes are super trendy this year, a handmade gnome would make a great Christmas gift too!

A Merry and Bright Farmhouse Christmas Kitchen

If you love farmhouse and vintage-cottage Christmas style, you might also enjoy checking out my Christmas kitchen tour.

Now it’s time to take a look at the other Thrifty Chicks’ creative spool projects via the links below.

Thank you so much for visiting today! If you enjoy inexpensive and creative craft projects, be sure to subscribe to Follow The Yellow Brick Home by email so you will be notified of all the upcoming craft posts and DIY’s via a weekly newsletter. I love connecting with you, dear readers!

Happy crafting!

Amber