Crafty Christmas

I had a lot of fun preparing for Christmas this year.  I found some fun crafts to make, and I hope the recipients have as much fun playing with them/using them as I had making them.

I made a hobby horse for Samantha:

Not quite finished, but if I waited until I had the picture to blog, you might not get a chance to read this.

I made some Lego accessories for my nephew:

Belt with Lego belt-buckle

Lego tie tacks

And I made a number of wooden puzzles for the kids and some nieces and nephews.

Puzzle of our family

For Rebecca's sake, I will show you a little of how I made the puzzle (with a few pictures).

First I got a large piece of wood from Home Depot.  I got a piece of hardboard (I think that is what it is called).  The board I got was white on one side, and wood on the other.

Steven modeling my purchase

After I got the board home, I cut it into 11-inch strips using a table saw.  I also printed off two pictures for each puzzle I was going to make.  For my niece that likes Lalaloopsy, I printed out these pictures.  I then used a spray adhesive to attach the pictures to the board.

Lalaloopsy glued to the board

 I need two pictures because I want to have the picture on the bottom of the puzzle to help the person assembling the puzzle know what the picture should be.

After the glue dried, I got out the scroll saw to cut up the puzzle.  First I separated the pictures (this could also be done with the table saw.  When the pictures are on their own 8x11 inch boards, I took one of them and cut out the interior of the picture.  I sliced up through the bottom of the board/picture, and cut around the main picture, leaving a decent border.

Frame and interior of the puzzle

 Once the interior of the puzzle was out, I cut the picture up into little pieces.  If you have people in your picture, you may want to cut around the faces.  And you can tailor the number of pieces to the ability of the person you are making the puzzle for.  When I was done cutting, I sanded all the edges to make them smooth.

Base, frame, and puzzle pieces

 Once all the cutting was done, I glued the frame to the base picture.  I, again, used the spray adhesive.  I sprayed the back of the frame and pressed it down on the base picture.  I had to be careful that I didn't use too much glue, or it would bubble up.   Also, it is a little dangerous to use spray adhesive on a windy day!  I ended up with glue on my arms and glasses.

Glue bubbling up under frame of puzzle

When the glue was dry, I coated the puzzle and pieces with mod podge.  This seemed to be a good sealant, but it doesn't work well with pictures printed off the computer-- it makes the ink run.  On later puzzles, I used an adhesive laminating page to cover the puzzle, but that sometimes peels off.

One thing that made me really happy about the puzzles (besides the excitement of creating somethings) was how much it cost me.  I spent about $16 for the glue and wood. I later spent about the same amount for the mod podge and the laminating sheets.  I made 8 puzzles and have enough board and other supplies to make at least 8 more.  Not too shabby!