Picture Puzzles

I came up with an easy and fun craft for Christmas presents this year. I even think the recipients really liked them! I admit to having made things that I loved making, only to realize that not everyone actually wanted them - oops.

I saw a backsplash made with 4 in ceramic tiles that had art work sealed onto them and that got me thinking about what else could go on tiles. Here is what I came up with:

Picture Puzzles! 

Look at those adorable kids!

We were at Lowe's a while back and I saw these tiles:

and they kind of struck me as something crafty, but I didn't really have any project in mind. Then I saw the backsplash project and something clicked.

• Step 1: Get the backing and all the glue off the tiles.

There were two different types of glue on the back of the tiles, one was Elmers-y and came right off by rubbing or with the nail brush after a few minutes soaking in warm water. The other was more hot glue-y and was a pain in the butt to remove, a knife, patience, and very soggy fingers finally got it off. The packages of tiles looked identical so I couldn't find a way to tell which glue was used.

• Step 2: Facebook stalk your recipients or find photos in a more conventional way. Print the pictures on regular paper, not photo paper or it won't adhere well. 
• Step 3: Measure your tiles and crop your photos. My 1" tiles were actually 7/8" each. This is super important to get exact or your tile will show and the puzzle will look weird when assembled. Mine were mostly 4.4" square which is 25 tiles.
• Step 4: After you measure, mark a piece of tape with the measurements to act as a guide on your paper cutter or on a piece of paper. We tried several ways of doing this, but I think the marks on the paper cutter worked best.

             

•  Step 5: Mod Podge and then Mod Podge and then Mod Podge some more. If you hate brush strokes then lightly sand between each coat, but I don't mind them, so no sanding here. Use the Mod Podge to glue the individual squares to the tiles and then let it dry about an hour. Then start top coating. Let each layer dry most of a day (12-24 hours). I decided the magic number was 4 top coats and two on the sides.

•  Step 6: If you are making 15 of these things, plan to have your table become craft central for a week or so. (The cups in the middle are bath salt scrubs for my Book/Wine club - epsom salt, baking soda, sea salt, coconut oil, lavender oil and a couple drops of food coloring)

• Step 7: To be kind, make a copy of the photo to be used as a guide and number the back of each tile so they can be put back easily if you aren't in a puzzle doing mood.

Overall, this is an inexpensive and pretty low skill level project, the only hard part is being patient between coats.

Photos in the Round

I don't think I've ever acknowledged how much I love the eclectic, yet organized photo display that my reluctantly artistic husband created. If I were to plan this photo, I would place the pillows more carefully and have Doug put down his phone, but even ignoring that, look how cute our house is!

Stepping on the Book of Knowledge

When I bought my house in 2007 I had a list of things that needed to be fixed RIGHT AWAY. The carpet had to be pulled up, the stairs to the kids' rooms had to be replaced, there had to be more storage in the kitchen, walls and cabinets needed to be painted, the bathroom needed remodeling, and many small tasks. As an excited new homeowner, I got right to work! Then quickly realized that some projects were a bit more involved and/or costly than I realized. The stairs, unfortunately, fell into this category. They must have been originally built by a DIYer with no measuring device or carpentry skills. They are just plywood, even though the rest of the house has hardwood, and are too shallow (but in varying amounts) and too tall. Because they are so bad, they have always been on my list of things to not even try to camouflage, I just needed to get them replaced.

Well, I decided on Friday I had HAD ENOUGH! I don't have the money to replace them and was sick of looking at them. So, I called my friend, internet, and asked if she had any ideas. She was full of them! I found a beautiful technique for a kraft paper floor at An Oregon Cottage blog and that got me thinking... I have been holding on to several volumes of a 1945 edition of The Book of Knowledge Children's Encyclopedia for no reason other than a rampant case of bibliophilism.

I thought the kraft paper idea was gorgeous, but using the same technique with pages from the encyclopedia would be fun and interesting, and make me happy, which is important. :-) I have to admit that tearing that first page was a little hard, but once I got started, it was fun!

Tear and glue, tear and glue, tear and glue... Here is me hard at work, but Paige actually did about a third of them all on her own, plus helped tear and gather supplies when I was all gluey. Levi watched Lucille which was also a crucial part of the process.

I did every other at first so the kids could get to their rooms for part of the day

Deciding on how to trim them since some have a lip, some have a gap, some are flush... I think I am doing this ribbon on bottom and a piece of quarter round trim at the back. 

Here is the almost finished product, I need another coat of paint on the risers and several more coats of polyurethane and the trim, but I think they are great!

Here are the finished for now stairs, they are 1000X better than they started! I decided to go with quarter round trim at the back of each stair and just live with the gaps at the top of some of the risers. I'm thinking about painting the trim on the sides black and maybe doing a fancy treatment on the risers - we shall see...