To begin place your waste basket upside down. Add cotton batting 2/3 of the up for a beard. I trimmed mine with scissors and cut it in strips. Add a moustache. I rolled his up on the sides but you could leave it hanging down. You can add paint to help distinguish between the moustache and beard. I glued a styrofoam cone with batting wrapped around it to the bottom of the waste basket. Glue a flesh coloured styrofoam ball to Santa’s face where his hat meets his beard. With two baby socks filled with cotton I created his feet and glued them to the interior rim of the waste basket. Add your favourite embellishments and voilà!

Supplies

One foot tall plastic waste basket.
One and half inch styrofoam ball.
Santa hat.
Christmas themed baby socks
Christmas embellishments
Cotton batting
Glue/glue gun
Paint for nose

Step 1: How to Begin

Place your waste basket upside down. Place your hat over the pail to judge where you would like to place the gnome’s beard. The hat and beard should meet. Once you’ve chosen the right spot glue the beard to the bucket.

Step 2: 2nd Step

The gnomes beard can be a solid piece of cotton batting but I chose the cut it in strips. I added his moustache just below the rim of his hat and curled it upwards. You can leave it hanging if you’d like. I added gray paint to distinguish the moustache from the beard and the separate beard strands.

Step 3: 3rd Step

I added a styrofoam cone to the top (bottom) of the bucket. I glued a small styrofoam ball to the tip of the cone as a filler. I also added cotton batting around the styrofoam cone to fill the hat.

Step 4: 4th Step

I glued a pre painted styrofoam ball between the gnome’s moustache and the rim of his hat. I painted the nose a flesh colour with an added rosy spot. I stuffed little Santa themed baby socks and glued the opening of the socks just inside the rim of the pail. They are so cute when they dangle!