Peanuts Yard Art - Planning and Building

I searched for Peanuts Christmas greeting cards to find an image of the Peanuts characters. I saved multiple greeting card images so I could pick and choose.  I gave myself at least a month create this project.  

Supplies

hand held jig saw with extra blades to do the majority of the cutting

band saw or scroll saw for areas that need more precision (optional) 

sand paper or sanding block to smooth the rough edges

small round file (optional)

4 ft x 8 ft sheet of plywood 

paint brushes

acrylic paint

primer undercoat to ensure better adhesion of the paint and to provide extra protection

wood filler to fill in wood imperfections (optional)

3/8 inch x 2 foot rebar

eye screws

The first thing I did was primer the smooth side of a sheet of plywood with an all surface primer

Elmers wood filler

Transferring the images from the greeting card to the plywood

I found a used Artograph Prism projector on Ebay and enlarged the characters from about 2 inches to 2 feet and penciled them onto the primered plywood.  There are smaller less expensive projectors like the Artograph Tracer Projector and Artograph EZ Tracer Projector from places like Michaels.

Enlarging image from greeting card to plywood using projector outside at night

A few of the kids penciled in

The majority of cutting was done with a hand held jig saw.  For cuts that needed more control I used the band saw.

Sanding block

Cutting them out

  

Since Charlie Brown's hat bill and their small necks were going to be a weak spot I decided to reinforce it with a strip of the plywood.  I got it as clean as I could with a stiff bench brush and glued a strip down with Elmer's Carpenter's WoodGlue Max.  The Elmer's glue bottle says it is stronger than wood when dry.  I weighted each one down until dry.  The wood strip down the back also provided extra thickness for the eye screws to be added later.

Painting

I used Craft Smart acrylic paints from Michaels and sealed it with Krylon Matte Finish.

Woodstock and the stocking on Snoopy's dog house were an afterthought so I had to cut them out and attach with screws and glue.

The back side of the dog house and stocking

Mounting Hardware

Rebar

Eye screws brand and size

Eye screws went into the wood easily after drilling a pilot hole half way down.  This also helps prevent the wood from splitting.  2 ft x 1/2 inch pieces of rebar will be pushed into the ground and the eye screws slid over them.

 I found some solar powered flood lights at Lowes

The finished project