Sunday, January 2, 2011

Gumnut gnomes and tiny toadstools

I went to visit a friend the other day and when we went for a walk I discovered a beautiful gum tree. I'd seen a few blog posts a while ago about making kid's toys from gum nuts so decided to see what I could come up with. This is the end result:

Four little gnomes, all complete!

A close up of one of the gnomes

They were so simple to make (although a little time consuming!) All they require is a gum nut, old fashioned wooden clothespeg, some felt and thread and glue. You simply glue the gum nut onto the wooden peg and then make some clothes. I just cut out a couple of rectangular pieces of felt for pants and a top and cone-shaped piece for the hat. Then I stitched up the back of the hat and did some blanket stitching around the edge of the hat and the top.

Toadstools all finished - can you guess which ones the kids did?

I also decided to make some toadstools while I was at it - another easy thing to do! All they need is a polystyrene ball cut in half and then a clothes peg pushed into the base. Paint it with red paint, add some white spots and you have your very own toadstool.

The kids were able to help paint the toadstools

Jacob was quite proud of his efforts I think!

The kids quite enjoyed playing with the gnomes and toadstools when they were all finished. Although now they are fighting over which toadstool and gnome belong to each other ;)



Visit We play at Childhood 101 for more great play ideas

9 comments:

Sarah said...

These are gorgeous! And I really like the way you can attach the pegs to the side of a container for super easy painting.

carly said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Miss Carly said...

Love the toadstools! They would go incredibly perfect for setting up a fairy scene!

{sorry I posted by accident from my personal account}

Narelle said...

Indeed :) The great thing about these pegs is that you can make whatever you want with them! Fairies would look very cute too!

Jo said...

Oooh I love the toadstools might try them with my little Mario fan :)

Andrea said...

I love it! what a perfect homemade toy:)
~Jada roo can do

amandab said...

I don't know why I didn't even think about gnomes and toadstools going together! LOL

Very cute :)The toadstools, or something like, would make great cardholders for Christmas or birthdays.

Narelle said...

Good idea, Amanda. Now you have me thinking about fairy-themed ideas for Esme's birthday this year!

Marita said...

They are so adorable. What a great idea.

Related Posts with Thumbnails