How To Make Your Own Puzzle

Making a puzzle on your own can be quite a creatively challenging thing to do. In fact, a self made puzzle can simply double the fun when you sit to sort it out. A home made puzzle requires some simple materials which are easily available. The most important thing that it needs, however, is your time as making a puzzle can be quite tricky and demand time. Moreover, the puzzle that you make should be interesting enough to be played again and again. The article comes up with some easy tips on how to make your own puzzle. Read on to make a cool and intriguing puzzle of your own.

Create Your Own Puzzles

Material Required:

A picture or artwork
A sturdy cardboard sheet as large as the artwork.
A paintbrush
A marker
Scissors or utility knife

Method:

The artwork or picture for the puzzle can be a calendar page, a picture or your own piece of original artwork. The paper should be able to last longer. Fragile papers like newspaper tear easily.
Prepare a full size copy of the artwork and color it so that when you assemble the picture you can refer to the entire picture.
Now, take the cardboard sheet and apply glue all over it. You can use the paintbrush to smoothen the glue in a thin layer so that it doesn’t leave globs. Ensure that the edge of the cardboard has been glued properly. Leave it to dry completely.
After the glue has been dried completely, take off the excess cardboard with the scissors. Now, turn the whole thing over to let the plain side of the cardboard face up. Draw lines to mark the areas where you plan to cut apart the puzzle pieces.
If the puzzle is being made for a very young child, make sure it doesn't have more than 20 pieces and that the pieces are large enough to make sense for the young one. For older kids, the pieces may range from 20 to 80 pieces. You need to also ensure that the pieces of the puzzle should have interlocking parts. For ideas on the size of puzzle pieces, you can take references from existing puzzles.

Remember that making a picture puzzle can be a time-consuming exercise. However, once it has been made, putting it back together is a matter of minutes. If you want to make a more challenging puzzle, you can go for an advanced puzzle with 100 to 200 pieces. Remember that it will take a very long time. So, don’t begin the initiative if you don’t have the time to complete it.

Note:

Once the puzzle has been planned out and guidelines drawn, carefully follow your lines to cut into pieces. A simple puzzle can be made by just cutting a few large pieces. A utility or craft knife will work as a better option if you are making a complex puzzle with a number of pieces.

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