Babies?

Hey babies, when did you get big enough to learn to spell your name?

I put Tommy's in here too since he asked. I made it 2 yrs ago and let him paint it himself. This time I only let the girls pick their colors. Maybe those last two sentences are a bit obvious???

Jigsaw Fun

I made another one of these puzzles! You haven't seen them yet but I used to make them about 10 years ago! Some of you will remember. I glue a free advertising postcard (yes, there are some good ones) to the plywood and then cut it up! It is 4x6. This one has 28 pieces. I wonder if my 4 yr old can handle it....

Finally Finished

I finally finished this puzzle. I cut it back in January but didn't get to the sanding and painting until today. I really wanted to paint something with northern lights. I made the pattern from two different coloring pages, clip art and a photo.

Hello little man!

My son and I made this car. He wanted a car that he could put a person in and out of so we drilled a big hole in the top the size of the little man. We also painted the flames using glow in the dark paint! It would have been a good idea if I had read the instructions where it said to use over a light surface. Ooops. I guess when he goes to bed I will have to paint the flames with white or yellow and then reapply the glow paint.

New baby in the club

Congratulations J and K on your new, itty, bitty baby! I have been making these teethers and testing them on a friend (thanks T), so here is one for you baby Guthrie! - no finish just 100% maple and lots of love.

Dinos!

Unfinished dinosaurs. Not "ooooh how natural they are unfinished" but rather I didn't sand them yet unfinished. Why is it I like to cut, paint and rub that silky beeswax over everything but sanding just doesn't interest me? Anyway, fun for the 2 year old twins if given only the three pieces of the one dinosaur and fun for the 4 year if given all 12 pcs at once!

Toys

I am not just a puzzle maker. Check these out.

The doll house came from a craft blog. I will edit and link to it later.

The cars were whipped up when I got my box of wheels in the mail!

The memory game was a gift for a friend's son. I had to make one for my daughters too while I was at it. Why not?

The little buildings for the Thomas the train set were a joint project by my 4yr old son and I.

More Old Puzzles

When I first started. I experimented with two types of puzzles. One is the stand-up puzzles. The Noah's Ark set is from Scroll Saw Art Puzzles by Tony and June Burns and cut from 1" pine except the ark which is 2" spruce. The bunnies, elephant, and turtle are from Partick Spielman's Scroll Saw Puzzle Patterns and are cut from 2" spruce.

The other experiment I tried was the double layer tray puzzle. This is a fun puzzle where the egg, cocoon, and caterpillar are underneath the butterfly. I will definately try this again when I get around to designing some more patterns.

First Puzzles

OK, so I spent naptime scanning in my old puzzle photos. A walk down memory lane for me! Here are some first ones for me. The fish is cut with fir plywood. I learned about birch for the turtle, duck and chicken. Too bad I was so into that high gloss acrylic paint. I much prefer the washed out acrylic look and have even switched to children's watercolors in the last year. The three at the top are from the Scroll Saw Pattern book - Patrick Spielman and the fish is adapted from a free pattern that is no longer posted.

Puzzles I Have Made in the Last Month

Here are some of my latest puzzles.
The Turtle was adapted from a free applique pattern.
The Mouthy Fish is a pattern from Patrick Spielman's book Scroll Saw Puzzle Patterns.
The Ice Cream is just a puzzle waiting to happen. Yum. (Thanks to free clip art.)
The Fruit are from free clip art and were made with only 4 pieces for my 2 year olds. The small stems are glued in.

Puzzles, Puzzles, Puzzles

Ok, so I started this bog to show off the puzzles I have been making. I would start from the begining but back then (Oh I am so old.) we didn't have a digital camera so I will have to scan my images in later. Here are some more recent ones.
The fish is a favorite of mine. I have made many of them.
The tree is a free pattern I found here. http://www.shopsmithhandson.com/archives/sept_oct_02/html/money_maker.htm
The snail is a pattern from the Patrick Spielman book Scrollsaw Puzzle Patterns
The fairy is a pattern of my own getting my inspiration from an applique pattern that I saw.
The boat is also inspired from a puzzle I saw somewhere.

Workshop - Wood Shop

Workshop, wood shop - what is the difference? Workshop is a better word but that name was already taken so I will have to get used to saying "I am going to my wood shop now."
I would love to show you my "wood shop" next but I have to clean it up before I take a picture. I will tell you about it though. We bought a house 2 yrs ago that was built in the 60s. The basement is a beautiful wood panelled room with an orange bar. It looks like a 60s party room in need of a 70s disco ball hanging from the centre. Instead it had orange and green streamers hanging from the ceiling to match the orange bar and fake green marble fireplace. Just lovely. So I turned the bar into my workshop. Now I can cut or glue or paint while the kids play. The bar is too high for them to reach anything and I keep the ironing board accross the entrance to keep them out! I love it. Here is a picture of the basement when we moved in.

Where to begin?

In 1996 I was in Montreal at the Bonaventure Craft show. I saw these beautiful wooden puzzles that I will never forget. I wish I had bought one becasue I have been thinking about them ever since. Anyway, I decided then that someday I wanted to make wooden puzzles. It wasn't long afterward that I told my boyfriend (now husband) about them and he told me about scroll saws. A few Christmases later I had my own scroll saw and have been cutting puzzles ever since. Here is a picture of my first ever puzzle. I didn't know anything at the time so this puzzle is made out of fir plywood (not a good choice for many reasons). One of my daugters scribbled over it with a crayon too so it looks kind of funny.

Yippeeeeeee!

I finally started a blog to show off my obsession with making wooden toys for my kids and friends. More coming....