UPCYCLING: K-Cup Holiday Gnomes

For my birthday this past summer I got a Keurig Coffee Machine and I have to say, it’s my new bestie. I love how easy it is to make a cup of coffee whenever I want one without wasting a whole pot of coffee. How spoiled are we that we can press a button and voila – a fresh cup of coffee. There is a little bit of guilt with each cup when I throw away that little plastic K-Cup. Uggh. I was determined to come up with an idea to recycle some of the K-Cups. The light bulb went off one day because I’ve also been wanting to make some gnomes for the holiday season.




I’ve been obsessed with all the gnomes I’ve seen on Pinterest. Tall gnomes, skinny gnomes, little short guys. The common feature is the tall pointy hat, button nose and fluffy beard.


Here’s what you need to make some gnomes out of a recycled K-cup. Fuzzy white yarn, felt, a K-cup, hot glue and a bead or round object for the nose.


Start by making a cone shaped hat out of felt. You’ll want the bottom circumference to fit the K-cup. Hot glue your cap together and set aside.


Wrap some yarn around 3-4 of your fingers about 8 times. Tie off the top and cut the loop end at the bottom. I made three of these for each gnome.


With your clean K-cup open side down, glue on your bead or miniature wood ball toward the top. Hot glue the beard around the nose and then hot glue the cap in place.


Although I’m not sure gnomes trim their beards, I trimmed each beard so the yarn pieces were layered.


Aren’t they cute? I plan on making several sets to use as gifts. Plus, I feel a little less guilty about all those plastic K-cups. Do you have any great ideas for recycling K-cups? Let me know – leave me a comment.

Thanks so much for stopping by.