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 just 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 once again make a new wood craft project 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.  I currently have two construction crews working at the same time so it has been very noisy and busy.  Definitely exciting 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 actually had a “theme” to guide our projects and it was to redo something with wood.  Perfect!  I have a lot of that laying around.

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 July centerpiece which I think will be a fun Patriotic decoration 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 decorations, and left up 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.

The first thing to do of course was to sand down the block of wood to make it smoother for the paint.  Then 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.

 

 

His face was painted in a light buff color acrylic paint and 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 was attached using the E6000 glue for the hat brim, his eyebrows, and his nose.  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 project, especially over wood, I like to seal the paint with a top coat.  This time I used Krylon Acrylic Coating in Matte finish because I felt that it should be a more rustic-looking centerpiece.  It also needed a bit more charm.  So 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.

Just a few scraps and scratches and the Uncle Sam Patriotic table centerpiece instantly had a little more charm.

 

 

DIY 4th of July decorations are such a fun way to show off your American pride.  Add in some small American flags with some blue flowers or white flowers and your table is ready for a Fourth of July celebration. 

 

 

 

Be sure to visit the other talented and creative bloggers listed below who are also participating this month in the ‘Do It Over’ challenge. 

 

Exquisitely Unremarkable

Little Vintage Cottage

Modern on Monticello

Pandora’s Box

Purple Hues & Me

Southern Sunflowers

Unique Creations by Anita

Sum of Their Stories

Tea and Forget-Me-Nots

The Apple Street Cottage

Birdz of a Feather

Color Me Thrifty

 

 

Hugs,