Easy Wood Craft for a Patriotic Table Centerpiece
When you have had a construction project of some kind going on at your home for the last two or more years, then you also have scrap wood pieces available for those random and fun projects.
At least at my house, we do.
Being someone who can’t stand to throw out a perfectly good scrap piece of wood that could be used for easy wood crafts, I have to stop myself from trying to save all of the pieces.
Fortunately, I was able to repurpose some of this scrap wood for this month’s ‘Do It Over’ Design challenge and created a fun Uncle Sam painted Patriotic table centerpiece.
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Easy Wood Craft for a Patriotic Table Centerpiece
The latest construction project at our house is the tearing down and rebuilding of two large decks.
One on the front of the house, and a larger one on the back side of the house. There were two construction crews working at the same time so it was very noisy and busy. Exciting at the same time though to finally get another large project off our to-do list for our mid-century-inspired home.
And of course, there is plenty of old aged wood available as well as some freshly cut pieces from the new wood laying around ready to be picked through, and plenty of ways for these scraps to be upcycled and reused.
THIS POST IS PART OF THE ‘DO IT OVER’ DESIGNERS LINK PARTY. A GROUP OF DESIGNERS WHO TAKE SOMETHING OLD AND/OR UNUSED AND ‘DO IT OVER’ INTO SOMETHING NEW. THESE ITEMS CAN BE FOUND IN CLOSETS, BARNS, GARAGES, YARD SALES, THRIFT STORES, YOU NAME IT!
At the end of this post, there will be an opportunity for you to visit the posts from all of the talented and creative bloggers who have joined the challenge this month.
This month’s challenge had a “theme” to guide our projects. The project could be anything using repurposed wood.
Perfect! I have a lot of that lying around. What I didn’t have available in scrap wood pieces, would be easy to find at my local dollar store.
My biggest challenge was which project idea to try first to feature with this month’s challenge.
I have a whole Pinterest board full of red, white, and blue July decoration ideas that of course I will never be able to make all of them. But that doesn’t stop me from collecting all kinds of pins and ideas for July 4th decorations this time of the year a Patriotic display anywhere in my home.
I decided to go with a decorative wood block figure of Uncle Sam for a festive centerpiece for a fun Patriotic tablescape idea to leave up on display for the entire summer.
For this project, I used:
- 2″ x 6″ x14″ reclaimed wood board
- 1.5″ x 8″ woodcraft piece from Dollar Tree
- 3 small wood pieces from a Tumbling Tower Game from Dollar Tree
- Star-shaped wood craft cutouts
- Acrylic paints in Patriotic colors of red, white, and blue. Also in buff for skin tone and black for eyes.
- Craft paint brushes
- Pencil
- Ruler
- E6000 Glue
- Sandpaper
As far as DIY projects go, this one was very easy and a great way to reuse scrap wood.
This easy wood craft Uncle Same Patriotic table centerpiece can also be on display from Memorial Day, used as part of your Fourth of July tablescape, and left out until Labor Day.
It will easily become one of your favorite Patriotic decorations for all the Patriotic holidays. Then you can bring it back out again in the Fall for Veteran’s Day.
Assembling the wood block Uncle Sam.
The first thing to do was to sand down the block of wood to make it smoother for the paint.
Next, I applied two coats of white acrylic paint as a base coat.
I also painted a base coat in white for two of the little wood pieces from the stacking game and the third one in a buff color. The 1.5″ x 8″ wood piece from Dollar Tree was painted blue for the brim of Uncle Sam’s hat. The small wood star cutouts were painted white.
After the two coats of white acrylic paint as a base coat had been allowed to dry for a few hours, I picked up my pencil and ruler and started to create the face and hat of Uncle Sam.
The 1.5″ x 8″ wood piece, now painted in blue, was put in place first to determine where the brim of his hat started and where to draw a U-shape of his face with the pencil. Then I used a ruler to determine the placement of the strips above the brim for the top part of his hat.
Add in the decorative details to complete the centerpiece.
His face was painted in a light buff acrylic paint. Red stripes were painted on the top part of the hat. Black acrylic paint was used to create little oval eyes below the block pieces that will be his eyebrows.
Once all the paint dried again, each little wood piece for the hat brim, his eyebrows, and his nose were attached to the larger board using E6000 glue. Three white stars were glued to the brim of the hat for the final touch on this Patriotic centerpiece.
Whenever I use acrylic paints on a craft project, especially over wood, I prefer to seal the entire project with a top coat.
For a more rustic aged look, I decided to use Krylon Acrylic Spray Coating in a Matte finish.
After the top coat dried, I used sandpaper to rough up the paint around the edges of the wood block and along the decorative painted areas to distress it for a bit more charm.
Just a few scraps and scratches and the Uncle Sam Patriotic table centerpiece instantly had a little more charm.
Cute and easy wood scrap Uncle Sam themed centerpiece.
DIY 4th of July decorations are such a fun way to show off your American pride and enjoy the summer’s Patriotic celebrations.
Especially with a festive table and the perfect centerpiece. Add in some small American flags alongside blue or white flowers and your table is ready for a Fourth of July celebration and beyond.
Be sure to visit the other talented and creative bloggers listed below who are also participating this month in the ‘Do It Over’ challenge.
Hugs,
Other wonderpost posts to visit:
Aww, he is so cute!
Your Uncle Sam is a cutie! I love his whimsical look. I save all the scrap wood pieces from our projects, also. I spotted my husband throwing some of it away recently and I went bonkers ~ lol.
Thanks Allyson. I understand. I tried not to cringe every time I heard the workers throw something in the dumpster. But I honestly don’t need all that extra scrap wood either.
Oh, girl! Love patriotic things and love ones I can do even better!!!! Going to pin this!!!!
I love this project Donna, so patriotic. And a great way to upcycle all thoses scraps of wood.
Your Uncle Sam is so cute! It’s hard to believe he’s made out of scrap pieces of wood. So creative and fun!
I’ve never seen anything like this, what a fun project!
Oh my gosh Donna! He is adorable… his little face!!! So cute!
Tania
If that isn’t the cutest patriotic table centerpiece ever, Donna!!!! You are so creative and clever to come up with such an adorable wood piece for this challenge! Great job!
What a fun way to use scraps of wood. Your Uncle Sam is super cute.
He’s adorable Donna! Looking forward to seeing what else you do with all the wood :). Happy Memorial Day Weekend!
Adorable – I made a 5′ wooden Uncle Sam many years ago and my husband mistakenly sold him at a garage sale years later – that’s a long story!!!
Sounds like a good story though.
How cute! What a great way to use some of those scraps from all of that construction – 2 crews at once? Oh my!
He’s perfect Donna! What a festive way to put all those scraps to good use! Happy Holiday Weekend!