Don’t toss your puzzles with missing pieces! Upcycle those old puzzles to make this DIY winter spruce puzzle craft – perfect for decorating at the holidays!
If you have puzzles around the house I’m more than certain you have a few missing pieces. If you have kids, then you probably have quite a few puzzles with missing pieces (ask me how I know!)
I don’t know about you, but I always feel guilty tossing a puzzle over a few missing puzzle pieces. I hate to just toss the puzzle… so this is a neat idea to help you put that puzzle to use (yes – even with the missing puzzle pieces!)
With crafts like this puzzle winter spruce, you can put those missing piece puzzles to good use.
Below I am going to show you step by step just how easy it is to take puzzle pieces and turn them into home decor. You can use the same idea to do any shape that you want. But for this craft, we are going to make a puzzle winter spruce tree.
DIY Winter Spruce Puzzle Craft
The puzzle pieces for this craft we will be gluing them on to an artist canvas. You could also use things like scrap wood, plaque wood, glass or even thick cardboard.
Supplies Needed:
- 1 5×7 Artist Canvas (or backing of your choice)
- White Acrylic Craft Paint
- Green Acrylic Craft Paint
- Brown Acrylic Craft Paint
- Hot Glue Gun With Glue Sticks
- Paintbrush Sponge
- Small Paintbrush (optional only needed for touch-ups)
- Few Handfuls Of Small Puzzle Pieces
Craft Directions:
First thing you want to do is lay a small handful of puzzle pieces down on a piece of paper or plastic. Flip all the pieces over so the brown side is facing up.
Then using the sponge paintbrush coat those pieces in brown. Make sure you do not heavily coat them as you do not want to soak the pieces in the paint.
Then on another piece of paper do a few handfuls of puzzle pieces and paint those all green.
After the pieces are mostly dry be sure to move them around a little so they do not stick to the paper/plastic. When they are totally dry, we can move on to gluing them in place.
Start with the brown to make the trunk of the tree. Lay a few pieces side by side in about the middle bottom of the canvas. Then lay a few above those. I did mine about four or so long. Then layer more brown pieces on top those. I did mine three layers high.
Now we can move on to the green pieces to make up the tree. Start layering the green pieces out from the brown to make tree branches and work your way up the canvas. After you have an outline to your liking, you can start layering them on top of each other as you did for the brown. You want little canvas to be showing behind them.
Next, we need to add a touch of white to make it look like it is snow-covered. Or, if you just want a green spruce tree, you can skip the white.
To add the white, dip the end of the sponge brush in white paint. Then blot the brush on a piece of paper until most of the paint is off. Then lightly coat the outer edges and wherever you think a little dab of snow should be. I even added a little to my tree trunk as well.
Then allow it to fully dry.
DIY Winter Spruce Puzzle Craft
Materials
- 1 ea 5x7 artist canvas
- 1 ea white acrylic craft paint
- 1 ea green acrylic craft paint
- 1 ea brown acrylic craft paint
- 1 ea hot glue gun
- 1 pack glue sticks
- 1 ea paintbrush sponge
- 1 box puzzle pieces
Instructions
- Lay a small handful of puzzle pieces down on a piece of paper or plastic. Flip all the pieces over so the brown side is facing up.
- Then using the sponge paintbrush coat those pieces in brown. Make sure you do not heavily coat them as you do not want to soak the pieces in the paint.
- Then on another piece of paper do a few handfuls of puzzle pieces and paint those all green.
- After the pieces are mostly dry be sure to move them around a little so they do not stick to the paper/plastic. When they are totally dry, we can move on to gluing them in place.
- Start with the brown to make the trunk of the tree. Lay a few pieces side by side in about the middle bottom of the canvas. Then lay a few above those. I did mine about four or so long. Then layer more brown pieces on top those. I did mine three layers high.
- Start layering the green pieces out from the brown to make tree branches and work your way up the canvas. After you have an outline to your liking, you can start layering them on top of each other as you did for the brown. You want little canvas to be showing behind them.
- Next, we need to add a touch of white to make it look like it is snow-covered. Or, if you just want a green spruce tree, you can skip the white.
- To add the white, dip the end of the sponge brush in white paint. Then blot the brush on a piece of paper until most of the paint is off. Then lightly coat the outer edges and wherever you think a little dab of snow should be. I even added a little to my tree trunk as well.
- Allow it to fully dry. Then hang up as wall decor or, use a frame holder to stand it up.
That is it, you now have a cute new winter craft to display. You can hang on the wall or prop up next to some other winter decor. You could also use a frame holder to stand it up.