My girls LOVE puzzles. They will sit for a long time working on puzzles and that makes me happy cause they are busy doing something besides watching TV.
Since General Conference for the LDS Church is coming up this weekend, I thought it was the perfect time to make some church related puzzles for them to work on while we are listening. These are so quick, easy and fun to make, I just had to share.
For this project you will need some foam core board, spray adhesive, a rotary cutter/box cutter, and pictures. For the picture of my girls, I found one that had been a little beat up so I didn’t mind cutting it up. You could really do anything that has meaning to your kids. I think that’s where the real fun comes in.
First off I bought my foam core at Staples. It was a 30×40″ piece so I can still get at least two more puzzles out of it. I think it cost about $6, and my pictures were $1, so I made these puzzles for about $2 each. Not too bad!
I used my spray adhesive to coat the foam and then did a coat on the pictures. Then I placed the pictures on the board. Easy peasy!
Now to cut the puzzle picture out. I used my rotary cutter and ruler for this. It seemed to work pretty good, but I did have to trim it up a bit with some scissors. Then the fun part…to cut the puzzle pieces.
I found with the rotary cutter, it was easiest to make a big long cut first and then cut off smaller pieces from that.
Now for the real test. What did my girls think?
As you can tell, they LOVE them!
Melissa says
I LOVE this idea! Thank you so much! I was wondering…
since you ended up having to trim it with the scissors anyway, would it work to just cut it out with scissors? I’m also wondering if it would work to just use sheets of the foam…not as thick as the foam core board…hmmm…I may have to experiment.
Becky says
The scissors don’t cut through the foam core.
I guess you could use the sheets of foam, but I wanted to make my pictures thick and durable. You’ll have to let me know if you try it on the sheets.
Thanks!
MeganM. says
What an awesome idea! I’m totally going to pass this on to my sisters for their kids. Perfect timing for Conference. Thanks!
Girls Hair Acessories says
What a great idea!!! I love it!!! Thanks fore sharing!! 🙂
Allison says
Just wanted to tell you thanks for sharing with us. I just pinned this so I can make one in the future!
I Heart Salt Lake says
Great idea!
Nikki says
I so wish I would have seen this before general conference! Great idea!! Shame on me for not getting on here sooner.
By the way, Becky, this is Mandi Richin’s friend, the one that went to The Hunger Games with you! 😀
Becky says
Hey Nikki! My girls loved these puzzles. You should still make some. Super easy!
Cookie says
I think it would be great if you paste another photo on the back before cutting out the pieces. That way they would have double the fun. Hint: Make the backgrounds as different from each other as possible so that it’s not too difficult to find the right side of the puzzle that you are working on.
Cookie says
Oops….almost forgot. Before cutting out the pieces, take a sharpie and go around the outside edges to make it a little easier to put the puzzle together, since there will be so many straight edges that are not actually the picture puzzle edges.
Wilette says
So are all the pieces straight?
Becky says
No. You can cut them into shapes here and there.