My son is massively obsessed with puzzles right now. He will spend an hour or two straight just focused on a puzzle! He went from 48 piece puzzles earlier this year to now a 200 piece puzzle so I thought it would be super fun to make some custom puzzles for him! The first few attempts were not my best work if I am going to be honest. However, I have now made a few different types of puzzles and have learned quite a lot along the way! Some puzzles I use my Cricut (maker or explore) for, some I use a heat press/iron and some I just use some poster board! The best part of DIY puzzles is that you can put as much or as little effort into them as you feel like! It also took me quite a bit of time to learn how to make larger puzzles than the current Cricut print and cut/material size limitations. With the methods below you can make the puzzle as big or as small as you would like.
How to create puzzles: There are a few different types of puzzles you can make:
- Cut with Cricut: Use Cricut’s 1.5mm chipboard and printable vinyl (Cricut needed)
- Blank pre-cut puzzles: Pre-cut sublimation blanks from Amazon (basically white puzzles you add your design to). I have found a few different ways to do this – read the full details below! (Cricut not necessary)
- Poster made puzzle: Poster board and a poster/printed photo. This is by far the easiest one and can be made either with scissors and glue or a Cricut.
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Cut a puzzle with your Cricut
What do you need to make this Puzzle?
- 1.5mm chipboard (don’t use the 2mm its too thick – TRUST ME)
- Printable vinyl: You can use Cricut’s printable vinyl (or one of the many on Amazon) OR you can use a printed photo and glue it into place.
- Holographic overlay: I prefer to add an overlay so the image doesn’t get beaten up during the cutting process. I usually use a holographic one as kids LOVE those but a clear one works just as well.
- Cricut Knife blade
- Strong grip machine mat
- Masking tape
- Cricut Maker or Explore
How to make and cut your puzzle:
- Create your puzzle design: There are a few puzzle templates in Cricut design space. Cricut has a great 42 piece puzzle which is probably the max you want to do with Chipboard (Image #M22EA34D1 in design space)
- Design the image: There are many of ways of doing this so do whatever you are most conforable with, here are some ideas:
- Design in Canva: I absolutely LOVE to use Canva for this. (An amazing design platform!)
- Create in design space: There are many images that can be grouped together in design space that can work, especially if you add a patterned background!
- Photo: Use some spray adhesive to attach a nice glossy 8X 10″ photo!
- Upload your image as a print then cut file in Cricut design space. Print then cut your image.
- TIP: If you want to print larger than the print and cut area then upload your photo and size it in design space. once you know dimensions print it either from Canva or from word. Then when prompted chose the “i have already printed this image” option
- Attach the overlay (this protects the image while cutting)
- Transfer your printed image on to the chipboard – TIP make sure it is lined up for how it will CUT
- Prep for printing: Place the chipboard in the middle of your strong grip mat (don’t align to the top corner like you usually would) and use masking tape to tape down the edges on all sides
- Move your white star wheels to the sides so that they don’t interfere with the material cutting
- Insert your knife blade and select the proper material from the menu
- After a few passes pause the cut (by using the pause button on the machine) and try to slightly lift a corner of the puzzle to see how it is cutting. Hit the un-pause button to resume the cut. It is my experience that it does not usually take all 12 passes and you don’t want to end up cutting through your strong grip mat!
Make a puzzle from a blank pre-cut puzzle
What do you need to make this puzzle?
- Sublimation compatible blank from Amazon.
- Tip: If you want the puzzle larger than the 120 pieces it comes in then you can combine two or more of these blanks to make whatever size you want!
- Printed design. Either with Infusible Ink or printed on sublimation paper (read below for HOW to do this step – anyone can do it and it is SUPER easy!)
- Heat Press: I have the Cricut 9″x9″ heat press but honestly I was wishing I had Cricut’s Autopress (or even the 12″x10″ Heat Press).
- Butcher paper
- Heat resistant tape
How to make it?
Creating the design
- Print on sublimation paper: Don’t have a sublimation printer? Many local vinyl supply companies have the option to print at a per page rate on sublimation paper!! OK, OK, now on to HOW to create the design. I use such a super easy method – CANVA! If you haven’t tried it yet it is a super easy to use design program that has both a free and paid option. You don’t need to have any design experience to use this program as it’s as easy or easier than using word. Set your canvas to the size of your puzzle and then search for a background (full size image!). It’s literally as easy as that. If your puzzle is larger than a printed page you may need to slice the image into two.
- Infusible Ink: Don’t want to play around with printing sublimation? That’s totally fine – use your Infusible Ink markers/sheets. I like to take purchased SVGs or ones from design space and change the image from ‘cut’ to ‘draw’ and it will give an awesome outline of the image. Use your Cricut machine to draw the image and then use the markers to freehand colouring it in.
Transferring it to a puzzle:
- Prep the puzzle: If you want to make it larger than the blank came (these are my go-to puzzle blanks and they come in 120 pieces) then take off the outer row on one side of puzzle pieces of two of the blanks and combine together (making it 210 pieces!). You can do this with as many rows as you like.
- Put down some of the butcher paper to protect your heat press mat/ironing board. You are working with ink – it will not come out!
- Use the heat resistant tape to tape down your image to your sublimation puzzle blank. You don’t want to skip this step as you need the image to stay put.
- Heat according to the blank
- Wait for it to cool before you peel off the transferred image sheet.
Poster made puzzle
What do you need?
- Bristol board (or poster board for those non-Canadians!). I just buy mine at the dollarama
- Poster: I have been using the ones that come in the front of paw patrol books!
- Scissors (Or a Cricut if you want a more puzzle look)
- Spray adhesive
How to make it:
- Spray the adhesive on the back of the poster and attach to the bristol board (poster board)
- Lay something heavy on top like books for a couple of hours to make sure its nice and stuck down
- Cut the puzzle:
- Scissors: Just start cutting! go big and then get smaller. That way you can control how many pieces. Cut them in squares or triangles or even squiggly lines.
- Cricut Cut: The fun part of this type of puzzle is you can cut on your large mat! so size it to fit 12×24″ and have a super cool larger puzzle!
Have you tried making puzzles for you kids?? which is your favourite method? Mine was Cricut cutting on chipboard but since my son has started liking puzzles with more pieces I have gotten really into making ones with sublimation blanks as I can make them any size I want!
Looking for more? Check out which accessories you really need to get started!
Wondering where to buy a Cricut in Canada? Click here!
Happy Crafting!
Jo
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