Re-Purposed Puzzle!

Step 1

Select an old puzzle, that is still in good shape and has all of its pieces!

Step 2

Put the puzzle together and then paint the entire puzzle with acrylic paint (we selected white, but any color will work just fine). You can use acrylic or tempera – whatever you have around the house!

Step 3

Once the paint is completely dry (although acrylic paints are fairly quick drying, I waited a few hours to be sure the surface was dried thoroughly), draw/sketch your image.  If you painted your puzzle a light color, feel free to use pencil; however, if you painted your puzzle a darker color, try using a white or yellow piece of chalk.  Encourage your mini artist to fill the entire space with some sort of image – it isn’t fun or easy to complete a puzzle that is just empty space.

 Step 4

Begin PAINTING with your acrylics!  Try to encourage your mini artist to refrain from using too much paint – it will leave large blobs on the puzzle’s surface (taking longer to dry and makes it tougher to put the puzzle back together!) and it could lead to the puzzle becoming too absorbed with paint (this won’t make reconnecting the pieces easy later on).

Step 5

This step can be skipped if you don’t have the materials handy, but it does help extend the life of your “masterpiece”!  Once the puzzle is completely painted and dried, give a quick coat of gloss/varnish.

 

Step 6

Ta – Da!!!!  You have now re-purposed your old puzzle into one that is new, usable, and inspiring!

Here are two examples from my 5 year old twins, Samantha (the face) and Natalie (a scene from Lion King – yup, that’s Scar on the left and Simba on the right!!!).

I enjoy how differently these two puzzles came out and I really like that my one mini artist even signed her name!