How to Design Your Own Jigsaw Puzzles

Designing a Jigsaw Puzzle by Hand

• 1

  Measure the backing board you will be using to keep your puzzle solid to determine the size of the image you will be creating.

• 2

  Determine how challenging you want the puzzle to be. If the puzzle is for children, a simple design with big shapes and colors will work best. If you want a more challenging puzzle, create many details that will confuse the game player.

• 3

  Cut a piece of paper to the size of the puzzle.

• 4

  Sketch out the design you are doing on the piece of paper.

• 5

  Fill in the color of the design using colored pencils, crayons or markers. The design should be flat, so using 3-D art supplies such as glitter or puff paint is not recommended. When the design has been filled in, erase the visible pencil marks.

Designing a Puzzle on a Computer

• 6

  Follow Steps 1 and 2 of Section 1.

• 7

  Scan any photographs or images you want to include in your puzzle image. Save these image files to your desktop.

• 8

  Open your image editing program and start a new document that is the desired size of the puzzle.

• 9

  Import scanned images into the document and place them where you want them. You can also adjust the color of the images or make them black and white when they are in the document.

• 10

  Add details with the Paint function of your image design program. Once you have finished designing, print the puzzle image or burn it to a CD to have it professionally printed and mounted.