Puzzle Cards - Merry and Nordic

Puzzle cards are a lot of fun.  They are easy.  They don't require a lot of exact measuring or even speccific supplies or papers AND they can be used in a whole range of ways.  The variations are endless.  Some of my customers called them stained glass cards and I like that too.

Wanna learn to make some puzzle cards?  Here's what they look like:

These puzzle cards are made with Be Merry paper.

 

I also made some with the Nordic papers.

Here are the steps to make your own puzzle cards.

Step 1.  Select the papers you'd like to use.  The number of papers you select will determine both the number of pieces in each puzzle AND the number of cards you can make in one "batch."

Step 2.  Cut the selected papers into the same shape (any shape! square, rectangle, circle, heart, etc...)

Step 3.  Stack the papers atop one another.  Turn the stack upside down.  Draw a puzzle design on the bottom of the bottom paper in the stack.  Cut through all the papers (if there are a lot of papers you may need to cut just 2 or 3 at a time) so that the same puzzle shapes are cut from each paper.

Step 4.  Flip the stack over so that the paper designs you want to see on the cards are facing up towards you.

 

Step 5.  Choose a solid color piece of cardstock as the background. Leave the first pile as is.  Move the top paper from the second pile to the bottom of the pile.  Move the top two papers from the third pile to the bottom of the third pile etc etc... until one of each paper design is on top of each stack.

 

Step 6.  Begin adding the top puzzle piece to the cardstock, recreating your original puzzle design.  Leave a bit of background showing through between each piece and around all the edges of your original shape.

 



Note:  I don't cut my background paper until all of the puzzle pieces are taped down.

Step 7.  Repeat steps 5 and 6 until all of the puzzle pieces from all of the stacks are gone.  There should never be a duplicate paper design in the same finished puzzle card.

Step 8.  Use this puzzle card as a gift tag, a scrapbook page element or mount it onto another folded piece of cardstock to make a greeting card.  You can also add a title or other embellishment to the front of the puzzle.  Changing to different background papers also changes the stained glass look of your puzzle card.

NOTE:  If you used a Custom Cutting System shape for your puzzle, make sure there is ONE SIZE BIGGER of that same shape to cut the outside of the background paper.  With a square or rectangular puzzle, that isn't necessary. 

Your puzzle can be small or large or any size you like with as many pieces as you want to include.  You can use ANY paper pack, coordinating or random scraps.

 

Aren't they great? And easy? It's a great way to showcase a specific paper pack and all of it's designer papers for your clients.  It's also a super way to use up the rest of a package after you are done with it in your traditional album.  Rather than have lots of paper package left overs, I try to find ways to use a package up, knowing that I will want to purchase a new set of paper designs to use the next year!

 

Happy Traditional Scrapping!  Sher