Sunday, October 10, 2010

Creativity knows no bounds!

A few things that you've learning about me so far: I love Fall. I love a good bargain. And I love to use items meant for one thing to create something original and recycled. This craft encompasses all of these loves into one sweet little thing!

A little background, I have been obsessed with cleaning my home for the last few weeks...my two BFF's have been a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser and a bottle of Lysol Disinfecting Kitchen Spray. (inside tip, it's not just good for the kitchen). When I was cleaning out my storage shelves, I found a bag of puzzle pieces from a puzzle that I was doing right before I moved into my current home...5 years ago...and determined that I probably was never going to finish this puzzle and instantly thought to myself...what can I do with puzzle pieces???



Last week I made a Fall wreath from Dollar Tree items and I love it! I think puzzle pieces look a little like leaves and I've been thinking of party favor ideas for my Pumpkin-Carving Party on the 30th so I put the two thoughts together and TA-DAAA!


This was fun to make so if you have an old puzzle laying around or see one in a thrift store, pick it up! I think it would make a great kids craft too...super easy and super fun! This is how i did it....


All of the supplies for this project were already in my craft room so it cost me nothing new. I grabbed some card stock, fall colored paint, some Mod Podge, ribbon and my glue gun. I was playing it be ear because I had no idea what the final product should look like, but I have to admit it was exciting to start from scratch and just figure it out as I went.



First I painted about 10 puzzle pieces in each of the fall colors: red, orange, yellow, brown and green. The colors were a little too bright and looked too "primary" so I shaded the pieces a little so that they resembled the gorgeous colors of Fall leaves. I used some yellow to shade the brown and green, some orange to shade the yellow and red, etc.
I'm not sure why the green pieces look blue in the picture but it looks like little pieces of earth and that's not how look in person.


I laid some pieces out in a circle until I got the layed look that I was going for and it gave me the size of the circle I should cut. Using a piece of heavy cardstock, I cut a thin wreath form, not worrying too much about cutting a perfect circle because it was going to be covered in puzzle pieces anyway.




I started layering and gluing the puzzle pieces one layer at a time. Each layer took about seven pieces and it was fairly simple. I staggered the colors as much as possible as well as the direction I of each piece as I glued it to the layer below. Three layers was more than enough and gave the wreath some dimension and texture...I loved how it looked so far.




I made another wreath with the painted pieces I had left over and realized that I could make two wreaths with the pieces I had originally thought would make just one, and even had a few extra pieces to boot. I used a different color ribbon on the second wreath and gave each wreath two coats of Mod Podge.


Each wreath has an approximate circumference of 3.5 inches and took approximately 21 puzzle pieces each. I have tons of unpainted pieces left and think I might just make these to attach to the party favor bags for my party guests. I'm also looking forward to making some Christmas wreaths in the coming weeks as well...who knew an unfinished puzzle would be so fun to work with!

Hearts & Crabs is partying it up with these link parties!




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7 comments:

  1. Such a cute idea! I`m sure we have some incomplete puzzles that could be rescued and put to good use like this!

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  2. Isn't that the cutest?!? What clever party favors!
    smiles!

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  3. Thanks for sharing this. We make ornaments each year with my son for our family. We have done other things with puzzle pieces. I like this idea though and could make it for Christmas too.

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  4. This is great! I always love to see a good wreath, and this one definitely counts as great! Thanks for sharing.

    Amie @ http://www.kittycatsandairplanes.blogspot.com/

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  5. That is so cool! What a genius use for puzzle pieces! Love the fall colors on this one.

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  6. Cute! Thanks for linking up to Socialize with me Monday til Sunday!

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