So this year, I really wanted to do something special in the front yard for Christmas. Ours is an older neighborhood and unfortunately, not a lot of folks decorate their houses for the holidays.
We have lights on the house, but I wanted a little extra pizzaz for the kids. And yard decor is pricey (I'll have to hit a few after-Christmas sales). I decided a relatively inexpensive yard decoration would be some wood character cut-outs! So here is a sneak peek at my tutorial!
What you need:
(1) 8x4 sheet of plywood
flood light
wooden stakes
latex or oil-based paints (sample cans are plenty, but for your main colors you may need a qt)
jig saw
wood glue/wood screws
Step 1: Design your characters. Here is hubby painstakingly mapping out a Christmas tree (this took us over an hour...perhaps you all will be a little more math-smart)
Eventually, I had the idea to draw only one side of the tree, cut the wood down the middle, jig saw the branches, and then flip the one side of the tree over and trace it. That way each side of your tree is a mirror-image to one another.
We then took some scrap and wood-glued it to the back of the tree pieces. Line up your stakes and weight it for a secure hold.
Step 2: Outline in marker to make it easier to see when cutting.
Here are some other Christmas cut-outs we came up with.
Step3: Cut everything out with a jig saw and sand the edges.
Step 4: Paint!
I'm in the first stages of painting...check back for the final product!
Ginger
SSB
