How to Make a Jigsaw Puzzle (ltc spoiler)

*If you are getting the 50's Billboard Jigsaw LTC, be warned that there are spoiler pictures at the bottom.
For some time I have had several people "bugging" me to make trading cards with certain stamps of mine. I don't mind, but the only problem is that said stamps are bigger than a trading card is supposed to be. So here is my solution to the problem: create jigsaw puzzles of the trading cards and send them in trading card sized pockets. Whatcha think? As is usual for me, the logistics of this project ended up being trickier than I originally thought. And the process that I ended up using was probably way more difficult than it needed to be. But I'm pleased with the results. So here's how it goes:

1. Take one of your daughter's 100 piece puzzles and put it together.
2. Cover the puzzle with a piece of typing or tracing paper and then use the crayon rubbing technique you learned in grade school to get the shapes of the interlocked pieces onto the paper.
3. Now take the crayon rubbing and cover it with another piece of typing paper. Using a light table or other backlit source, trace the puzzle onto the clean sheet of paper.
4. Determine which part of the puzzle you want to use for your finished size, making sure there will be straight edges all the way around the outside.
5. Scan and copy the puzzle pattern onto the card stock that you intend to use for the puzzles.
6. Trim off any extra paper and then stamp your image on the front.
7. Cut puzzle apart. The 6"x7" with 42 pieces took me an average of 32 minutes to cut.
8. Put them in the LTC pockets that you created.

Or...email me for the pattern now that I've done all the hard work. :)

Now, before you tell me, "But Nitrocat, you could have....", let me tell you that I tried. I called all the scrapbooking places around here and no one had a die cut. I also called all of the photo places that take pictures and make puzzles for you and they wouldn't do it. So raspberries on them. This was cheaper anyway.

End results: Take one 6" x 7" stamped jigsaw puzzle...


















and turn it into one 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" trading card, complete with matching versamarked images on the pocket.




Oh, by the way, I have a couple left for trading!