How to Make Yard Decorations With Plywood

If you'd like to add whimsy to your yard decor, you can do so by making yard decorations with plywood. The possibilities are endless. You can make yard decorations for holidays, to show your support of a sports theme, or to make fun birth or birthday announcements.

Things You'll Need

• Sheets of plywood (paint grade)
• Pencil
• Jigsaw
• Protective goggles
• Sander
• Sandpaper
• Primer
• Sharpie permanent marker
• Coloring books (optional)
• Drill
• Wing nuts and bolts
• Wooden stakes
• Overhead projector (optional)
• Paint
• Paintbrushes

Instructions

1. Browse through coloring books to find ideas for your plywood yard decorations.Pick images that are bold and simple. This is optional. If you're a talented artist and know what you want to draw, you don't need to look through coloring books.

2. 

   Draw the image you've chosen onto the plywood. You can either draw your own design or use the coloring book page as a visual guide to help you draw it freehand. If you're not very confident in your artistic abilities, borrow or rent an overhead projector to project your image onto the plywood and trace the lines with a pencil. Draw the entire image, not just the outside lines.

3. Put on your protective goggles and cut the outer borders of the decoration with a jigsaw. Do not make any cuts to the inside of the image, you're just cutting the outlines.

4. Sand down the cut edges using the sander. Sand carefully and thoroughly, making sure to smooth out any rough or splintered areas.

5. Trace over the details of your decoration with a Sharpie permanent marker. For instance, if this is a Santa Claus yard decoration, trace his facial features, wrinkles, sections of his hat, buttons and so forth.

6. Apply a light coat of primer to the plywood. This will seal and protect the wood and will allow the paint to adhere better. Allow the primer to dry completely.

7. Paint the details of the plywood yard decorations, using paint and paintbrushes. Use the faint Sharpie lines that you can see through the primer as a guide. Let the paint dry for at least 24 hours.

8. Use a drill to drill holes through the plywood yard decoration and the wooden stake. Align the wooden stake so that at least 12 inches of stake extend down from the bottom of the yard decoration. The stake also should be long enough so that it's at least halfway up the height of your finished yard decoration.

9. Attach the wooden stake to the plywood yard decoration with wing nuts and bolts. It's now ready to be staked into your lawn as a homemade plywood yard decoration.