Homemade Summer Wooden Lawn Ornaments

How to Get Started

• Purchase ½- or ¾-inch-thick wood boards that are between 6 and 12 inches wide. Buy several feet of your boards according to how many lawn ornaments you plan to make. Grab a few wood strips to make posts for your lawn ornaments--1-by-1 inch or 1-by-2 inch--the thickness of which will give your ornaments structural strength.

  Use wood glue and 1- to 1 ½-inch finishing nails or screws to connect the parts of your homemade summer wooden lawn ornaments together. A jigsaw, hammer or drill and a wood surface are all the tools you need for this job. Have a circular saw, table saw or compound miter saw on standby just in case you want to cut your boards or strips into smaller pieces, especially if you have a lot of ornaments to make.

Tulips and Flowers

• Create lawn ornaments of your favorite flowers, as they timelessly signify summertime's breathless beauty. Look through pictures of flower varieties and then sketch simplified patterns of their natural design. Also search online for floral patterns that are easy to transfer onto the wood boards.

More Ornaments

• Vegetables make fun homemade wooden lawn ornaments. After sketching the outline of your vegetable selections--including carrots, lettuce, squash, broccoli, radishes and tomatoes--onto the wood board, cut the shapes out with a jigsaw.

  Welcome signs are warm and welcoming lawn ornaments. Give your welcome sign a unique shape and paint the word, "WELCOME" onto the board. Add floral designs and summer motifs around the word to make your welcome sign one of a kind.

  Depict summer with the sun and other warm-weather motifs. The clear blue sky, flying birds and summer fun with balloons, outdoor toys and sandy beaches are all depictions for decorating your lawn and garden ornaments.

Applying the Finishing Touches

• Sand the edges of your homemade wooden lawn ornaments to a smooth finish. Cut the wood strips down to the desired heights of your lawn ornaments--the same height or varied heights for added interest. Apply a generous amount of wood glue to the top side of the wood strip and hammer or screw to the back of the ornaments. Paint the motifs with brilliant, eye-catching colors. Protect your lawn ornaments by applying a couple layers of polyurethane, preferably oil-based to resist water and to withstand the weather conditions.

Plan Your Arrangements

• Group like ornaments together. Place flower ornaments in a grouping, either the same flowers together or alternate the mixed varieties. Arrange the vegetable ornaments in neat rows to mimic a vegetable garden. Disperse the whimsy, decorative ornaments depicting the sun, clouds, birds, water fun and balloons throughout your lawn. Place some in the flowerbeds, behind a tree, in front of a bush or near the steps--wherever they play well and make the landscape seem fun.

  Homemade summer wooden ornaments make functional garden markers as well. Place a tulip ornament in the center of the tulips, and carrots and other vegetable ornaments to mark your garden rows--a distinctive alternative to the regular unexciting garden row markers.