Since my siblings seem intent on bankrupting me by having endless numbers of children, I thought I might make Christmas presents for them all.
I lie. I also like to make them something that says I have spent time thinking about them. I’m a terrible person when it comes to remembering birthdays, keeping in touch or phoning people (I have an actual phobia of the phone, I’m sure). I can’t say for sure that they don’t look at the things I’ve made an wish I’d just gone to their Amazon wishlist, instead, but it makes me happy.
This past Christmas, I had just learnt the beauty of ModPodge (or watered down PVA glue, if you’re in the UK and financially challenged). So, I stole photos from their facebook pages, bought blank tissue-box holders, and created these:

Personalised photo tissue boxes

They weren’t the star of the show, though. The ones that took the longest (and nearly drove me crazy) were the photo jigsaw blocks I made for the two middle nieces (LC and Bee).
The idea was simple. You know those block jigsaws that toddlers have? I’d create some of those, but using photos of the little ones.
The process was not so simple.
Firstly, wooden cubes have lots of sides. Who’d’ve thought? Secondly, your printer will never print to the size you want if you just assume it’s going to. Thirdly, putting glue on the outside of a cube and then leaving it on paper to dry will just stick the cube to the paper (duh).

Jigsaw blocks

The other thing I discovered, after carefully choosing the photos, cutting them to size, gluing, waiting, gluing, waiting, gluing… etc… was that these puzzles turned out UNBELIEVABLY difficult to complete. It isn’t just that there are 6 different sides to these blocks, but also that each side can be turned four different directions. If I were to make them again, I’d stick to simple, bright designs, rather than photos that all have a similar colour or pattern.

To rectify this little error, I printed out the photos I had used, for the girls to use as guides, and put the whole lot together in a funky drawstring bag.

We saw Bee and her parents at the weekend, and her Mummy tells me it’s one of Bee’s favourite things. Which is nice to hear.

Bee and her puzzle