This week Iron Craft was all about wrapping gifts, ’tis the season right? I tend not to get very creative with my wrapping paper, I just buy the nicest I can find on sale after Christmas, but I do like to decorate my packages with ornaments. They can be used as the gift tag and are also a little bonus gift. If I can make the ornaments all the better. For this challenge, I came up with these little gnome ornaments made from some scrap felt and small Christmas balls.

These could not be simpler to make and they turned out sweeter than I had imagined. Tie them on a gift or just hang them from your tree.

If you want to use them as a gift tag, write the receivers name on the back with a thin tip sharpie.

Gnome Ornaments

Supplies:
small white Christmas ball (mine were smaller than an inch)
red felt
scissors
red thread (optional)
needle (optional)
wire ornament hanger
tacky glue
small white “pearl” bead
thin tipped Sharpie (optional)

Cut a triangle from the red felt that is all over twice the height of the ball. The bottom of the triangle should be round and fit snuggly around the middle of the ball.

When folded the triangle will make a pointy hat the fits on the ball. You can either glue or sew the hat together. I chose to whip stitch it. Leave a little hole at the top of the hat to put the hanger through.

For the hanger, I attached a wire ornament hanger to the ball and straightened the end that hang from the tree. I then threaded that end through the hole at the top of the hat and bent it into a hanger. (You could also tie a ribbon on as a hanger and thread it through the hat, though I think this might be tricker than the wire.)

Glue the hat to the ball. Glue the pearl bead just under the brim of the hat for a nose.

At this point you can leave the ornament the way it is or use a sharpie to add eyes or draw in a beard and moustache. I think I like them best with just eyes.

If you make any gnome ornaments we’d love to see them on our Flickr group.