Yesterday, while heading back uphill after
walking little Mr. down to school, my wee Bloom and I passed a great big tree with lovely little pinecones strewn about beneath. It made me think of
this project.
Of course we had to stop...
And pick up more pinecones!
I left the sack of pinecones in the kitchen, and look who came out to visit with our new pinecone friends!?
In honor of this happy pinecone day, I am re-posting this pinecone gnome tutorial, just for you!
ORIGINALLY POSTED DECEMBER 11, 2011
I was
walking through the garden with my wee Bloom this morning and heard a
small rustling of leaves. Our attention was drawn down to the roots of a
great pine tree.
Nestled
among the roots, pine needles and fallen leaves were these two little
fellows, doing their best disguise themselves among the pinecones.
The
two little gnomes squeaked in terror when they realized they'd been
spotted, but after my wee Bloom and I knelt down and assured them we
meant no harm, they invited a third friend to join them. Introductions
were made with a "How do you do, and a how do you do, and a how do you
do, again..." (the gnomes in my garden are, apparently, very formal
little fellows!) We talked about the weather, the fallen leaves and the
migrating birds. Then our new friends said they must be on their way to
help the local squirrels hunt a few last acorns, so we parted ways with
a very formal "Hope to see you, and a hope to see you, and a hope to
see you again soon!" And I'm sure we shall...
If
you would like to see some pine-cone gnomes in your garden, you'll want
to find some smallish pinecones and 1-inch wooden beads with 3/8th inch
holes like
these.
As you can see, I made a simple pattern for the hats out of newsprint... These hats are about 2 1/2 inches high.
To
help the little gnomes balance, you may want to cut some feet from
matching felt and glue them to the bottoms of the pine-cones. One of my
pine-cones was still a little wobbly so I reinforced the felt base with
a piece of cardboard (and if your pine-cones are really wobbly, you can
add some weight by gluing a penny to the base...)
If
you want your gnomes to have mittens, you can cut 3 inch lengths of
pipe-cleaner, run a line of glue along the center 2 inches and then
place it in among the bristles through the middle of your pine-cone.
Leave an inch, or so, of the ends of your pipe cleaner sticking out in
front to form two arms.
Then
glue your bead to the top of the pine-cone, glue the hat to the top of
the wooden bead and mittens to the ends of the pipe-cleaner arms.
Finally, if you wish, you can paint or draw little faces. For these
gnomes I used colored pencils to draw the faces, and I think it worked
out nicely. Don't you?
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