Custom Jigsaw Puzzle

Kids have so many toys these days, it’s very hard for a grandpa to know what to get for a five-year-old’s birthday. My solution is to make something for my grandchildren, and give them a little cash along with that so they can buy whatever toy they might want.

This year the gift is a jigsaw puzzle for my grandson’s fifth birthday. He’s really into dinosaurs, so I found a nice dinosaur picture online. Fortuitously, his mom had recently sent me a beach picture showing him running away from the breaking surf. I was able to photoshop that into the dinosaur picture, and the result turned out great for my needs. This was printed out on two sheets of glossy photo paper which was glued to two pieces of 1/4” ply, which was then lapped together and sawn as one to make the join. I used a squiggly line for the join cut so there wasn’t an obvious straight line cut showing in the end result. The scroll saw then made random squiggly cuts for the puzzle itself. I made sure it ended up being a ‘25 piece jigsaw puzzle’ so a young child can manage it. (I first made a different 100 piece puzzle, and when I tried to put it together myself, it took well over an hour – not suitable for a small child!, so I am sending that one to my grandson’s mom!)

There was a little futzing around to get the alignment just right, but all in all it turned out well in the end. The finished puzzle is 10” x 15” and has a coat of clear lacquer applied for protection. There’s also a simple frame and backing for it so my grandson can keep everything lined up and not get too frustrated when putting it together. I look on it as a learning tool for him.

It’s amazing how much you can learn by making something simple like this.

-- "Never let your dogma be run over by your karma!"