Sunday, June 26, 2011

Altered Puzzles

They're finally finished! I wanted to create some kind of artwork to hang on the wall opposite the mural in the guest room. Inspired by the altered puzzles on Craftster, I decided to create an altered puzzle series using comic book characters.

The first one made was the Batman themed set. Compared with the other three, I'm not as happy with the result - it just doesn't look as nice. But it's okay - it was my first, so it's to be expected that I wouldn't hit my stride until working on the other puzzles later!

Next up was the set for the rest of the DC Comics crew:


Then it was time to move to Marvel, beginning with the X-Men:

Finally, the rest of the Marvel gang. This one was started - and finished - yesterday:


Today, all four were hung on the wall in the guest room. The final result:


I'm surprised at how low-cost the project was. The puzzles are from the dollar store and I used scrapbook paper already on hand. The pictures were printed on our printer here at home, using nice photo paper that has been stashed in the drawer for a few years. I already had two black 12x12 frames, so I picked up two more when they were on sale at Hobby Lobby. The most expensive pieces were the mats - I think they were about $6 each. Not too shabby!

Also surprising - the amount of time it took to complete. Finding (and choosing) the pictures took time. Cutting and trimming each character and the other papers used was very time consuming - especially filing the excess edges around each puzzle piece! The most time consuming part? Trying to figure out how to arrange the characters on the puzzles! I went through a whole pad of mini sticky notes and arranged (and re-arranged) the notes on the puzzle pieces at least three times. It was fun, though!