Santa Claus Christmas Lawn Decoration

Every year I try to add a new piece to my Christmas Decorations. This year I thought I'd keep it simple and make a plywood cut out of my favorite Christmas character, Santa! This is how I made it.

Supplies

Materials:

(1) - 4'x8' sheet of 1/4" thick plywood
(2) - 2"x4"x 8' lumber
Paper
Pen
Long Ruler / Straight Edge
Chalk Line
Jig Saw
Paint

Download and Print Images of Reference Material

This is the easiest part. Simply hop online, got to google images and search for Santa. Find a few piece's for inspiration and download or print them off for reference.

Draw Sketch and Grid Lines

Compile a drawing from your references and then add gridlines equally spaced every (1) inch or (1 1/2) inch or so. Try to get the grid to represent your sheet of plywood. For example, if your grids are spaced every (1) inch, and your plywood sheet is 4' wide x 8' tall, then a (1) inch grid on paper will equal (1) foot on the plywood. So your grid should be (4) boxes wide x (8) boxes high. You might have to play with different scales, but the goal is to fit your drawing onto a 4'x8' sheet of plywood.

Scale Up Sketch Onto Plywood

Using your sketch as reference, scale the gridline spacing from your reference sketch to use up as much of the 4'x8' sheet of plywood as possible. Recreate the gridlines onto the plywood. Next, using your sketch as reference, start drawing the edge lines of your image into each of the gridline boxes.

Cut Out and Paint

With the imaged sketched onto the plywood, get your jig saw and cut out the silhouette.

Next is paint.

then using the 2"x4"x8' lumber make an A-frame support on the back to stand him up.

Prop the decoration outside. If you live in a wind area, you'll want to use a sand bag or de-icing salt bag on the A-Frame to prevent your decoration from flying away.