Grow.Swap.Share: Jessica's DIY Puzzles

Today, I'm participating in the Grow.Swap.Share. I'm posting over at The Thriftiness Miss about Egg Fritattas. I'd like to welcome Jessica from The Thriftiness Miss. 

Hey there everyone! I'm Jessica and I blog over at The Thriftiness Miss. I'm so excited to be here guest posting at Life, Experience Needed and to share with you one of my new favorite craft projects for the kids.... DIY Puzzles!

Being my thrifty self I came up with 4 different ways to make your own puzzles out of a $1.00 pack of gift boxes from any dollar store.

Let's face it, toys get lost and broken and sometimes just don't last very long. With this cheap trick you can make tons of your own puzzles for your children at pennies on the dollar, and they can even be included in the puzzle making fun!

To make these, go get yourself a cheap pack of gift boxes from the dollar store and unfold the corners to make them lay flat.

Then cut all the edges off so you are left with the flat pieces of cardboard.

Now get creative!!! Have your children decorate to their heart's content. Pull out some paints, crayons, markers, chalk... anything and everything.

Here are 4 ways to decorate your boxes that I tried...

Draw a picture. I drew this with sharpies.

Use old book pages. Simply spray the cardboard with a thin layer of spray adhesive and stick the page to the board. Them trim off any edges.

Use coloring pages. Again use spray adhesive. It works great. it doesn't make the page soggy like white glue would and there is no bubbling.

Use Stickers. I did the ABC's but stickers are super cheap and come in every character, size, shape, and color imaginable.

Once you have your cardboard decorated it's time to cut them up into pieces to make the puzzle. I used my Xacto paper cutter but it can just as easily be done with scissors. 

Decide how many pieces you want your puzzle to be. More pieces means a harder puzzle so these can be made for young kids and older kids alike.

Now cut up your cardboard..

Have a zip lock bag handy to collect all of your new puzzles and you are done. Depending on how you decorate the boxes you could have 12 puzzles (6 front and back from a 3 pack of gift boxes) for only a dollar. Now that's a deal you can't beat.

I hope you like my nifty thrifty new craft project. Thanks for reading. :)