DIY PLYWOOD CHRISTMAS DECORATION: A SUPER CUTE, EASY, FREE-STANDING REINDEER

I can’t believe that Christmas is around the corner yet again! This year, I’m a bit bored of putting up the same old Christmas decorations, so I’ve been thinking about some potential DIY creations for the last few weeks. As it happens, I have a garage full of scrap plywood from building this floor-to-ceiling alcove wardrobe, and I really need to find a use for it. Long story short, here comes a tutorial for making a Christmas decoration out of plywood in the shape of a super cute, easy, free-standing deer. I didn’t use any power tools either!

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THE PLAN 

I have a lot of scrap plywood, and some of the pieces are fairly large, so I wanted a Christmas decoration that is big enough to use up a good amount of scrap and be a noticeable piece of art in the house. I also wanted a decoration that was cute and cartoon-like, and as I absolutely love animals, it had to take an animal shape. There aren’t any animals more Christmasy than reindeer so it was easy to decide on the animal to make. Here is a sketch I made of how I wanted the finished decoration to look (the snowflake is unrelated):

MATERIALS & TOOLS REQUIRED

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Quick tip 1
You don’t actually have to make this decoration out of plywood – you could easily use scrap wood, MDF or even thick cardboard. Get creative and use what you have around the house already!

STEP 1: DRAW THE SHAPE

The first step is to pick your scrap wood (or other material) and sketch the general shape of the deer on it. I used 18mm hardwood plywood. Note how I left the feet off – this is because I’m planning on cutting those out of thinner plywood and sticking them on later.

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STEP 2: CUT OUT THE SHAPE

The next step is to cut out the shape. I did this by hand, using a coping saw. Depending on how thick your wood is and how large the shape is, this can be really hard work. My deer measures about 30cm high and it took me about 3 hours of slow, dedicated cutting with the coping saw to cut it out. My hand was very sore for a couple of hours afterwards. If you have a scrollsaw, jigsaw or a band saw, I highly suggest you use those instead. As you can see in the pictures below, cutting with a hand also left the deer not perfectly shaped. To be honest, I like it better like this anyway, but if you’re after that polished, non-diy look, an electric saw would be very helpful.

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STEP 3: CUT OUT DETAILS

The next step to making this plywood Christmas deer decoration is to cut out the details for the figure using thinner plywood. I used 9mm plywood for this. For this deer, the details are the feet, front legs with chest, snout and nose. To get the sizes right, trace the shape on paper. Then, draw the details onto the traced shape and cut them out. Place the cutout paper shapes onto the plywood, trace around them and cut them out. Remember to lay them on your deer first to make sure you’ve got the sizes right!

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STEP 4: GLUE ON THE CUT OUT DETAILS

Now, glue on the cut out details and leave the deer to dry overnight.

STEP 5: OPTIONAL – CREATE A STAND

This is an optional step as the deer doesn’t need a stand – you can just lean him on stuff. I wanted a stand for my plywood deer and I wanted it to be a foldout one so it would be easier to store. I bought a small doll house hinge so that I could cut a stand out and attach it to the deer with a hinge. The stand I decided to do was shaped like a deer tail. I drew it directly on the plywood and cut it out. You can, of course, use a piece of paper to make a template. I then positioned the tail where I wanted it and marked where the hinge would need to be screwed. I screwed the hinge by hand, first to the tail, then to the deer.

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Quick tip 2
If you choose to make a stand with a hinge like this, buy the biggest hinge that will fit your animal. My hinge works well, but it is tiny, and I feel like it’s flimsy and will break quite soon. When it does, I plan to replace it with the biggest hinge I can fit to this tail.

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STEP 6: CLEAN UP THE PLY

This is a simple but essential step. If you are making your Christmas deer out of plywood, you must sand all the edges down to ensure no splintery bits are sticking out. My deer certainly isn’t perfect, and I left the shape as it is – I like it that way. But I did make sure that it is smooth to touch. I left my ply edges exposed as I don’t mind how they look, but you could also fill them with wood filler or apply edge banding to hide them.

STEP 7: PAINT THE DEER

The final step is to get creative and paint your plywood deer. I used acrylic paints to paint him. Then, I traced the details out using a permanent marker pen. If you don’t have a marker pen, you can use black paint, but it’s a bit more faffy. To finish the deer off, I used a clear wood varnish to make the ply nice and smooth and shiny. This isn’t necessary but it gives it that little extra boost in the looks department. It should also help the painted finish last longer.

THE RESULT

I love how he turned out! He’s so cute and fits in perfectly by the fireplace. My husband, on the other hand, finds him a bit scary because he thinks his eyebrows make him look evil 😀