I have absolutely fallen in love with the Jim Shore gnomes! Their cuteness just makes me happy! I enjoy setting scenes with these little gnomes. Several months ago, I created my first gnome door. Well…let’s just say I might have purchased a few more gnomes since then. I decided I needed more than one gnome door, because I was going to create a little gnome village. I call the scene below, “Summer Street.” I definitely see a “Boo Boulevard” and a “Candy Cane Lane” in the future! Today I will show you how to create a quick and easy gnome door. I will also share with you where to find the accessories for this gnome scene.
The main part of the gnome door is a basic wood plaque found at Hobby Lobby or Michaels craft stores. The particular plaques I use range from eight to nine inches. I chose this size because the largest Jim Shore gnome I have is around 8 inches.
Hobby Lobby craft store carries various wood appliques and mini handles to embellish your gnome door.
In order for your gnome door to be freestanding, you will need to create an easel back for the plaque. I created the easel back by using these wood coasters (Michaels) and mini hinges (Hobby Lobby.) The easel back will need to have weight to it in order to keep the plaque from falling forward. I used metal washers found at Lowes. I will explain in more detail in the coming paragraphs.
The first thing you want to do is use a fine sandpaper (220 grit) and lightly sand each wood piece. Make sure each piece is fully free of dust. Now you need to stain the wood plaques and appliques. Stain them separately; do not glue yet. If you want, you can stain the wood coaster that you will use for the easel back. I chose to use Minwax stain is colors: Navy, Barn Red, and Puritan Pine. You could also paint your door. I chose stain because I wanted to see the wood grain. I chose solid colors because my gnomes are very colorful, and I didn’t want the scene too busy. Make sure the stain is fully dry. Now you can glue your applique and door handle in place. I use E6000 glue.
Unless you are propping your door against something, you will need to create an easel back for your door to make it freestanding. You must add weight to the easel back to keep it from tipping forward. I chose to use metal washers. These washers were 1/4 x 1-1/2 inch. Use the E6000 glue and glue to the back corner of each side of the easel back. You don’t have to, but if desired to hide the washer you can use a wood disk in a matching stain. I used mini wood plates that I already had on hand from a previous craft.
For a flat-bottomed door, use the mini hinges and attach the easel back to the door. I did predrill to make it easier.
Here is a look at the back of my three gnome doors.
The reason I chose to add a hinge to the easel back on the gnome door was for scene purposes. On several occasions the easel back was too big for the tray placement/scene placement. You definitely do not have to use hinges. You can just glue the easel back directly to the door.
I chose not to use hinges on the round door. With hinges, the door was not stable. The round door required a flat piece of wood at the bottom for stability. The easel back was completely glued in place with the round door.
Now that the doors are done, it’s time to have fun creating the gnome village/street scene! I used mini command hooks and attached a string of mini lights to the underside of my kitchen cabinets.
These string lights look absolutely perfect! They really gave the scene a festive summer flare!
I also made a little ladder from packaged dowel rods at Michaels. The ladder leans against a 9-inch cake stand found in the dot bins at Target.
All of the wood disks used for the walkways were found in a bulk bag at Hobby Lobby.
The mossy grass comes in a folded sheet. It is so easy to cut to the desired size. The wood tray is from Target. All of the mini flower bouquets are also from Jim Shore.
Happy Crafting!
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