Recently I received an invitation to a party.
The gathering was a blast, but the method in which I was invited was a fun idea I want to share with you.
One day I opened my mailbox to find a somewhat lumpy envelope. When I opened it, a bunch of puzzle pieces spilled out. Colorful, but indecipherable in its unassembled state, I had no idea what it was.
Only after assembling the pieces did I find out it was an invitation to a friend’s party. It was all hand painted and lettered; it must have taken hours and hours to complete all the invitations. It certainly was a creative, albeit time-consuming, way to send invitations.
Spark Creativity With Puzzles
Puzzle blanks are great for kids to use on two levels. You can create original hand painted puzzles for children to play with, or the kids can use the blanks to create their own puzzle masterpieces.
If you’re creating puzzles for your little ones, you can use your child’s favorite animals, cartoon characters and themes. You can also customize them as teaching tools to encourage learning.
Since all kids love to express themselves, the blank puzzles are a great material for drawing and painting. The littlest tykes can use crayons and markers for creating masterpieces, while the older kids can use paints or ink as their medium of choice.
They can also use fun homemade stamps for making block prints on the puzzles. They can carve shapes from a cut potato or use found objects like leaves to print images on their puzzle blanks. Then, they can enhance the prints with a pen, colored pencils or markers for a unique, personal painted puzzle.
Party Fun
One parent created treasure hunt puzzles for all the guests at her child’s birthday party. Before the party, the birthday girl had a great time painting the puzzles with colorful scenes. Mom then wrote a hint on each one where to look for their goody bag.
The guests all had fun solving their personal puzzles, and after reading the hidden message, they all went hunting for their prizes.
Inovart Puzzle-It Blank 12-Piece Puzzles 5-1/2″x 8″ – 24 Puzzles Per Package ASIN: B00598K8H8
Inovart produces puzzle blanks in a number of pieces and sizes.
This package contains a total of 24 puzzles blanks.
The 5-1/2″x 8″ blanks are made up of 12 die-cut pieces.
They’re made from sturdy cardstock and are perfect for arts and crafts projects at any age.
Cardstock Accepts Many Mediums
The puzzles can be painted with watercolor, acrylics or oil paint. You can add surface texture by using a heavy body acrylic and applying it liberally with brush or palette knife.
The blanks also work great with inks, markers, crayons and colored pencils. Combining color work with pen and ink gives contrast to the piece and using a combination of mediums adds a layered quality to the artwork.
Glue On Artwork Or Embellishments
Since it’s a paper cardstock, you can use water-based glue to attach individual elements or a separate piece of artwork. If you glue paper to the top side of the puzzle blank, you’ll need to use a sharp Xacto knife to cut the pieces out on the back side. Make sure the adhesive is spread evenly over the entire piece, so the edges of the paper stay glued to the puzzle pieces when it’s cut apart.
