How to make a gnome house with a plastic bottle

There's no place like gnome. At least, there's no place like a gnome home. This fun craft is a little house to go along with a gnome display. The tutorial design makes the home look like a mushroom, but if you're not a fungi fan, you may create any design you like.

Working with stiff plastic can be dangerous, especially if it is cut and you are using a craft knife. To keep fingers safe, wear work gloves to handle the cutting phases of the project. For measurement clarification, this project uses a soda bottle that has an approximately 3-inch single label wrapped around the upper center portion.

Materials
- 2-liter plastic soda bottle with cap on (clean and dry with the label removed)
- Craft knife
- Work glove
- Fabric or paper to protect work surface
- 1-inch bristle paintbrush
- 3 small bowls
- White craft paint
- Red craft paint
- Brown craft paint
- Artist’s paintbrush
- Flat, level piece of bark or wood for display
- Hot glue gun
- Hot glue
- Fake moss
- Gnome figurine and additional display pieces, if desired
- 5 small, fake daisy blossoms

Instructions
1. Put a work glove on the hand that will be holding the bottle still for cutting. Cut around the plastic bottle where the top of the label was located.

2. Cut around the bottle where the bottom of the label was located. Set aside the center part.

3. Put white paint in a bowl. Place fabric or paper on the work surface to protect the surface. Use the 1-inch paintbrush to paint the bottom portion of the bottle. Paint all the way around. The base where the bottle sits can be left unpainted. Let the paint dry. Clean the brush.

4. Put red paint in a bowl. Paint the top bottle portion, excluding where the cap goes on. Let the paint dry. Clean the brush.

5. Paint white dots on the top bottle portion using the artist’s brush. Put on the cap. Let the paint dry. Clean the brush.

6. Put brown paint in a bowl. Paint a rectangular door and a smaller square window on each side of the door. Paint a dab of white paint on the door for the doorknob. Let the paint dry.

7. Apply five dabs of glue to the bottom of the soda bottle. Press it onto the right half of the bark or wood. Glue dried moss to the left half of the wood. Glue the gnome and any other display pieces to the left half.

8. Glue two daisy blossoms on the wood behind the gnome, one on the bottom back of the house, one on the bottom front of the house, and one on the cap.

9. Slide the bottle top over the bottom. Wait for the glue to dry before moving the piece for display.

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