Wooden Puzzles

There are SO MANY things I want to make right now, if I could create full time I might be able to keep up. I want to make a mechanical (automaton) music box with my husband, quilted mattress pad for the imminent baby, tiny one inch laser engraved hollow house box cubes at the TechShop, make doll house food and create patterns and kits for Etsy, doll house kitchen furniture, unpack and finish a half done quilt for the baby, clean and organize my space finish (proofreading now) my Blurb photobook for our 2006 Japan vacation, get started on my 2007 photobook (I try to make one each year, but I’m just falling depressingly behind on that, obviously I need to lower my standards or *something*.) And? There are only so many projects I can keep in my head at a time! I’m trying to prioritize finishing the things that are cluttering up my work space though, and trying not to start new projects, but new projects are so exciting! And once you start them, then they fall into the category of things that need to be finished! I know, that is so cheating.

Sometimes just thinking about something seems to move it into the category of things I’ve started that need to be cleared away from my mental workspace. In any case, I saved these birthday cards with the idea of turning them into puzzles, so the cards were cluttering up my workspace. Thus the puzzles had to be completed.

I glued the cards (with Mod Podge) down to 1/8 plywood with a nice veneered back, cut them into rectangles on the bandsaw, and cut the puzzle pieces on our scroll saw. I know, we have tools for everything and I love it, it is our greatest luxury. When we had our first one bedroom apartment we had a shop bench and bench top bandsaw set up in the corner. Of the fully carpeted apartment. And a mattress on the floor in the bedroom. You have to have priorities.

The first puzzle I sanded all the interior edges, and it looks nicer, but really, my daughter went through that so fast that I decided I should just cut them up and throw them at her, she doesn’t mind the white fuzzy edges on the picture, and the scroll saw doesn’t cut rough enough for their to be actual splinters, so whatever. Let’s go! Make!