Electric Guitar Garden Gnome

Is your Mom a super garden fan? Is there just too much greenery and not enough art? Sure, the front yard has a couple decorated pots, but they’re just not cool. Why not a backyard garden Gnome that's anything BUT leafy. You can replace the flower in the backyard table with an electric guitar Gnome. Or even put it on your backyard porch!

5 pounds of Crayola air dry clay

Chopsticks

(3)Toothpicks

Pallet knife

Paperclip

Bowl of water

Rectangular Block of Wood

Thick Wooden stick

Screw and electric screw driver

Wood glue

Cellophane wrap

--Painting Supplies--

Paintbrush (The brush to be bit small to fit into grooves and details)

Red acrylic paint

Blue acrylic paint

Green acrylic paint

Yellow acrylic paint

Brown acrylic paint

Black acrylic paint

White acrylic paint

To make an armature, take your rectangular block of wood and drill a hole through the wood the same diameter as the screw. Counter-sink the hole on the back of the block to the diameter of the head of the screw. Drill a hole through one end of the stick and attach the stick to the block with the screw and a bit of wood glue to lock it in place. Make sure to wait 20-30 minutes for the glue to dry before beginning the clay cover.

Get chunks of clay and put it onto the base of the armature (make sure the top is fully covered!) Roll some clay into a rope and make sure it's a bit bigger than the diameter of the stick. Once you get the shape, insert the clay rope directly into the stick so that it looks fully covered in clay.

After the base is covered in clay, get a bowl of water and dip your hands into it. Then rub your hands against the clay until it’s smooth.

At the top of the stick, pinch and pull upwards to create a sharp point (Like a pointy hat) Sometimes you don't have enough clay, so add some if you need to.

For the belly, take a large clump of clay and place it on the middle of the stick. To create the legs, roll some clay and make sure it's the diameter of the stick (because both the clay and the stick will become the legs) Place the stubby leg under the belly, make sure the 2 legs will have some room next to each other. Roll 2 balls of clay and place 1 of them on each leg (these will be the part of the foot that sticks outward) Afterwards, smooth everything out with some water.

Roll 2 short ropes of clay to make the Gnome’s arms. Place the arms onto the upper back of the sides of the Gnome. One arm should be away from the body and the other is bent towards the body. For both arms, place a tooth pick at the end of the rope away from the body and insert it through the arm.

In order to make the left hand, roll a small ball of clay and lightly squish it into a square. Use an even smaller piece of clay and shape it into a rectangle. Place the smaller clay on top of the square. Use a pallet knife and cut 3 small lines onto the smaller clay on top. Roll a tiny amount of clay into a rope for the thumb, place this on the left.

For the right hand, make a small clay ball and squish it into an oval shape. Roll a tiny amount of clay into a rope for the thumb, place this on the right.

Roll the left arm’s clay up, until you see a bit of the toothpick sticking out. Place the left hand into the toothpick. Roll the right arm’s clay up and place the right hand into it.

Roll clay into a medium ball, then squish it into a thick pancake and fold it in half. Place this clay onto the face of the Gnome, with the straight part near the hat and the round part sticking out a bit. Smooth the face layer in with a bit of water.

Wrap the whole Gnome in cellophane wrap and wait 20 minutes.

Get a paperclip and bend it to the picture. Use the curved part of the paperclip and scoop out 2 eye sockets on the face. Use the 1 bar of the paper clip and draw a jaw line for the Gnomes beard and mustache. Afterwards use the curved part and follow the jawline to lightly scoop out some clay. Smooth everything out with some water.

Roll 3 balls, 1 for the nose, 1 for the left cheek, and 1 for the right cheek. Place the nose in the middle, below the 2 eye sockets. Roll 2 smaller balls, and place them on the sides of the nose. Smooth everything out with water so that it looks a part of the face. For the ears, roll 2 more balls of clay and squash it and shape it into an oval shape. Place both ears around the height of the eyes.

Roll some clay into a stubby rope and place it under the nose. Use a pallet knife to draw lines downward onto the clay and the beard under it.

Use a pallet knife to draw a line around the waist to separate the pants from the shirt.

Roll 2 small ropes that can wrap around the Gnome’s boots. Once you wrap it around the Gnome’s boots, take a chopstick and blend it upwards into the pants. Use small amounts of water to further blend it in.

Start with coloring the hat red, then stop when you reach the Gnome’s forehead. Color the shirt green and stop where the line you made at the waist and the hands. Use blue to color the pants until you reach the hem. Color the boots brown. Mix 60/40 of white and black (There should be more white than black to create grey) Use the grey mix to paint the ground/base (Make sure you get the sides and edges!)

The beard and mustache will be an orange/red haired color. In a light layer, start with white, yellow, then red. If the red is too strong, then balance it out with white then yellow.

Paint the face and ears white (Don’t forget the back of the head too!) Use a light amount of red for the nose, both facial cheeks, and top of the ears. Blend it in with white, to create a blush.

This is only a suggestion, paint the Gnome any way you want!

Wait for the paint to fully dry.

Roll a ball of clay and squish it. Use a pallet knife to cut a small triangle. For the top of the guitar body, bend the left to be higher than the right. In the middle of the guitar, shape it to be going more inwards than the rest. Paint the guitar red and leave it to fully dry.

Create a tiny clay rope and insert a toothpick through the rope. Bend the very top of the rope’s neck to create the guitar’s head. Paint the whole thing pink by mixing white and red together.

Poke 3 holes on the head on each side (like a “6” on dice) to create a total of 6 tuners. Use a pallet knife to cut a few lines going sideways to create frets. Inside those frets, poke holes to create fret markers.

Make a smaller ball and squish. Paint this white and place it onto the fully dry red guitar. Roll 3 super tiny ropes, these will be pickups. Place 3 in a column downwards on top of the white part. Poke 3 holes into each pickup.

Roll a tiny ball and place it on the last pickup at the bottom. Poke 1 hole in the middle of the ball.

Make a bridge by creating a small ball and squishing it and shaping it into a rectangle. Take a pallet knife and cut sideways and 3 holes above the cut.

All around the white clay part of the guitar, poke a couple holes on the edges to act as face screws. Connect the red guitar part with the long neck.

On the side of the guitar add a screw eye and at the top of the tuner add a screw eye.

Wait for everything to fully dry.

Place the guitar on the Gnome’s chest and use string to measure around the neck to the end of the other screw eye. Cut the string and tie a granny knot then a square knot in one of the screw eyes, do the same for the other screw eye. Once it's done, place the guitar on the Gnome’s neck like a necklace.