This is the last of the handmade gifts that my mom gave Kayla while they were here in December. You can check out the other two here: #one and #two. I was going to share the third one with you somewhere two weeks ago, but then my grandma passed away and my posting schedule got a little warped.

Anyway, it’s here now. This one is a puzzle in the shape of a fish. You’ll notice that one piece is missing. 😀 Life with a two-year-old will do that. I’m busy with a felt project of my own at the moment, and I’ll cut out the missing piece from the offcuts of that. I’m digressing.

The point is, this is another super easy to make DIY project that will keep little hands busy for a while. My mom probably got this idea from Pinterest, or she thought it up herself, I don’t know. But it’s brilliant and Kayla loves it.

The possibilities for puzzles like these are endless.

You’ll need:

* Different colours of felt
* A marker / paint
* Scissors
* Glue

Steps:

1) Decide on a pattern. There are a lot of free patterns in various places online. Feel free to print the image of this one and use that!
2) Cut out the base for the puzzle. Ours is blue water, and is a square of 39 x 39 cm.
3) Draw out the pattern you want to use in a marker. To make this easier, you could draw out the pattern on paper first and then trace it onto the felt. Our fish is 25 cm at its longest point and 20 cm at its widest.
4) Cut out the inner parts of the puzzle. This can be more or less, depending on how old your child is. Our puzzle has 6 pieces.
5) Cut out the embellishments that you want to place around and onto your puzzle. My mom added two flowes to the body of the fish and also an eye to the face. Around the puzzle, we have seaweed, other fish and a sea star.
6) Glue the embellishments to the puzzle / base. My mom used a glue gun.

That’s it. It’s simple and quick to make, and will keep the kiddies busy for a while. It’s also versatile, so you can use whatever base shape you want to. A good idea would be to make a puzzle in the shape of a boy or girl, and make the puzzle pieces the arms, legs, torso and head, to teach anatomy.

That’s it from me for today. Have a good one, folks!

Yolandie