Picture and Photo puzzles are the most common ones that I’ve made. You have almost infinite choice in subjects as you will see. Most common backings that I use are Temperated Hardboard or Baltic Birch Plywood.
1. Choose the picture or photo.
The usual choices for me are pictures from classroom bulletin board sets and photographs. Calendars are also a good source.
Here are two examples from bulletin board sets. Unfortunately, the high quality Dinosaur and Underwater sets from Frank Schaffer are out of print.
Here is one made from a calendar photo. Calendars are a rich source of photos.
This is a 30+ year old puzzle of my two oldest sons. It is now used by my grandchildren. You can blow up any photo to 8×10″ or larger to use.
2. Glue the puzzle to the backing and cut it out.
I use white glue and a roller to try to spread the glue evenly after I place the picture/photo on the backing.
3. Mark the cut lines (or just estimate) and cut the puzzle into fully-interlocking pieces.
I’ve tried a few things. I’ve taken a chalk line and snapped it on the picture side. Sometimes this works and sometimes the chalk line is hard to see. I’ve also lightly drawn the cut lines on the back side. This works well except, depending on the saw blade, cutting the picture face down can leave a slightly damaged edge on the picture side (“tear out”). Having blades with a few offset teeth can help.
Another idea if you are doing two pictures at once is to tape them together with the pictures on the inside using blue or purple masking tape. Draw the cut lines on one of the back sides. Cutting both at once saves time and with the two pictures together, there isn’t any “tear out” on the picture sides. Two for the price of one!
The cut lines should divide the puzzle into pieces of roughly the same size. I like to keep a consistent pattern, see the picture on the left.
It is important that all cuts be “fully-interlocking” so that the pieces don’t easily come apart. See the example to the right.
4. A light sanding of the back edges and your done!
You may want to put water-based urethane on the picture side or the back side but I don’t for these types of puzzles.