A jar of soft gel medium and a few jumbo popsicle sticks = a photo puzzle! I made this one for Mr. Lil Blue Boo for Father’s Day:
With holes drilled in the top, all the pieces are kept together with a piece of hemp twine:
The three key materials to making this puzzle are:
Soft Gel Medium (you can purchase this at your craft store in the oil and acrylic paint section…..I use Golden brand but Liquitex also makes it)
Jumbo Popsicle Sticks (slightly wider and thicker than regular popsicle sticks)
A photocopy or laser jet-printed image
I picked up these “jumbo” mini sticks at a dollar/99 cent store:
Step 1: Print off your image in reverse using a laser printer or photo copy onto regular paper. It must be a dry toner ink….ink jet will not transfer correctly.
Step 2: Put double sided tape down onto a piece of paper and placed the sticks side-by-side onto the tape until they are wider than your image:
Step 3: Brush a thick coat of soft gel medium across the sticks covering them completely:
Step 4: Place the image face down onto the gel and smooth/burnish the paper to make sure there are no air bubbles:
Step 5: Once the gel has time to dry completely (about 20 minutes), wet the back of the paper with water:
Step 6: Use your fingers to peel off the paper:
Carefully rub the paper until it is all removed completely leaving the image behind:
Step 7: Use a razor or knife to carefully split the sticks apart…….
……and fine sand paper to remove any excess gel from the edges:
Step 8: Using a household drill, add holes to the end of each stick:
Step 9: Spray the front and back of the sticks with a few coats of clear varnish:
Use a thick twine or leather cord to tie the pieces of the puzzle together. You can add a small card for a special occasion!
Yes! Love it. Another reason I need to by the medium. Great tutorials as always Ashley.
Super cool! He is going to love it!
Super cute! LOVE it!
Do you wet the back with water or the gel?
Just regular paper and water!
Love it! Is it just regular paper? Thanks!
What a cute idea! Any Dad would love this and would love putting it together with the kiddo!
This is such a great idea! I’ve never used soft gel medium. Is it like Mod Podge? Could you use that?
This is such a wonderful idea, love it! There are so many possibilities with this, thanks for sharing!
I LOOOOVE this! Definitely need to make a few of these for Father’s Day. My kids would be so excited if I made some for them too.
Too cute! I love this idea!!
Bellisimo! è un gel magico, grazie!
what a cute idea!
What a great idea! I forwarded a link to my daughters teacher….could be a really great fathers day gift to make in class…minus the drill and clear laquer. Wondering if I could possibly just have the kids modpodge a light coat on top to seal and then maybe use a little jar or a tomato paste sized can to put them in…Anyway, love the idea! Fabulous!! Thanks for sharing!
You could even just have them cut a photo and mod podge it straight to the stick!
Fantastic idea! The only thing I might do differently is to drill the holes in the sticks before starting anything else…that way if I mess up the hole or break the stick, I won’t have to redo the transfer all over again…
What a grand creative idea. Thank you so much for sharing it! I love this and will be making a number of these for gifts!
I wonder if you could tell me what you mean by dry toner and not ink jet? Do you mean to print it off on my printer and then copy it on a cop machine????
Yep! Or use a laser printer.
OH! You’re good! LOVE this idea! I need to get working on this pronto! thx for sharing!
This is such a great idea! Thank you for sharing!
Is there another name for the Golden soft Gel Medium. At Hobby Lobby no one could help me find that exact name so I wonder if there is another name that it goes by. Thank you for the great idea! Smiles, Sarah
Adorable!! I think I can actually pull this off in the next couple days.
I have Golden Regular Gel Medium — does it have to be the Soft Gel? Thanks so much for your wonderful ideas!
Could you have used CitraSolv for this project?
Love this idea! Could you use a color copy or does it have to be black and white?