Classic Christmas Gnome SVG

About this design

The gnome that started the trend. Its tall hat slides down over its eyes, so all you see is a big round nose resting on a long, flowing beard. A fur band circles the brim, a pompom tops the hat, and two mittened hands and a pair of little boots peek out from under the beard and robe.

Gnomes come from Scandinavian folklore, where a small bearded house spirit, the tomte or nisse, looks after the farm and expects a bowl of porridge on Christmas Eve. Today they are one of the most popular Christmas motifs for crafters, and this design is the simplest version to start with.

Pieces and weeding

The solid file has 11 pieces and 3 cut-outs. Each part of the gnome, the hat, fur band, pompom, nose, beard, robe, arms and boots, is separated from its neighbors by a thin cut line, and the three strand lines in the beard are the cut-outs. Keep everything on one sheet of transfer tape so the parts stay lined up. It passes our cut checks from about 2 inches tall.

Color layers

• Hat and coat in red: the whole gnome, cut as the base layer
• Beard in silver gray
• Nose in peach
• Accents in gold: the pompom

Projects

• Shirts and sweatshirts in red and white iron-on.
• Mugs and tumblers in permanent vinyl.
• Wood shelf sitters cut on a laser and painted.
• Felt ornaments stitched or glued in layers.
• Gift tags with Print Then Cut.

Step by step: a layered felt gnome

1. Set the design to 5 inches tall and download the color file.
2. Cut the hat and coat layer from red felt, the beard from gray, the nose from peach and the pompom from gold.
3. Glue the red layer to a piece of card for stiffness.
4. Add the beard, then the nose and pompom on top, lining each up with the shapes underneath.
5. Punch a hole in the hat tip and hang it on the tree with a ribbon.

Size guide

Color ideas

• Red and white with a gold pompom
• Green hat with a cream beard
• Red, silver and peach, as shown

Why gnomes cut so well

A gnome is built from a few big, rounded shapes with no thin limbs or fiddly faces, so it weeds quickly and holds up on materials that are hard to cut, such as glitter vinyl, felt and cork. That makes it one of the best Christmas designs for beginners.

Pairs well with

The Gnome Face is the same gnome without arms or boots, and the Gnome Ornament adds a hanging loop.