A Mini-Lawn Gnome House (that lights up!)

Alas, the one thing I never knew I needed.

All these years, my poor gnomes have been living in the frigid rain. Or worse, stubbing their toe on rocks and things while trying to make it back to their homes at night.

I bought some $1 mini steak/stake solar powered garden lights, and wanted to do something more. With  the help of my artistic husband, we went to Michaels, bought some Sculpy clay with my 40% off coupon, and began.

I found a glass bowl and a glass.. drinking glass, and wrapped them in foil. My husband thought "hey, lets do a coil wrap" yada yada yada. It is basically getting the clay into a worm like position, then wrapping the object in a circular fashion. When you are done, you kneed it smooth.

For the cup (the base of the lawn gnome house), I punctured a small quarter sized circle on top. This would be for the lawn stake (that I am NOT about to put in the oven!). The mister added in some 3D texture art, to make it have  a door, window, and some vines.

As you can see, we used those awesome newspaper grocery advertisements to line the table. Using another coupon for Michaels, I got some mosaic tiles (a GIANT bucket.. blue shades), and started adding to the bowl part (which would be the mushroom). Now, for this, We cut out another circle, the size of the solar part of the light (see light below). We used the mini lawn gnome as a reference, as to how big the door should be.

 

Baking was a breeze, we just followed the Sculpy directions, and then got out some old Acrylic paints (which wont wash away with rain). I did not paint it, which might be why it looks so good! I did however use the Gorilla Glue to attach the top part of the solar light to the "mushroom" top. It really does expand, so check it often to wipe the excess.

 

 

 

After everything dried, we coated it with Mod Podge for outdoor stuff. It said to leave for 72 hours, which we did.. but then it rained later that week, and all this dirt got on the house and wont wash off.

 

 

As you can see, it looks good !!

 



 

 

I know what you are thinking, that gnome changed hats! It's true, now that he has a house to keep all of his stuff in, he can have a wardrobe. Below is a picture of it at night, again it was a $1 solar light, I think it is pretty bright!

 

 

 

If we do this again, we would NOT use outside mod podge. It just makes everything sticky, and dirt sticks to the new object... So, leave it as is!  Hope you have fun and try this! Show me your mini lawn gnome houses you made!!  I will upload the exact sculpy we used later..