by Angela V 
March Break is just around the corner and keeping our little ones entertained during the break requires some creativity, especially on rainy days.
A few days ago I decided to make some fun photo puzzles with my son for him to use during his upcoming March break from school. He loves puzzles and a personalized one with our own photos will keep him busy and happy.
I felt that that using photos of our family would be extra appealing to him. I know that his Grandparents who live quite far away really appreciate that he is getting to see them in some creative and fun form of picture puzzle.
I decided to use craft sticks for the puzzles because they are easy to work with, cheap and they make really easy and safe puzzle pieces to play with. We used the smaller craft sticks because that’s all we had at home but you can use jumbo size sticks as well.
What we used:
- Colour Wood Craft Sticks, 6″ long/ (Jumbo size if you prefer)
- Adhesive Glue
- Cutting Mat (or an old thick magazine)
- Sharp knife
- Your favourite photos on your computer
- Photo Paper
- Colour Printer
The Easy Steps:
- We started our project by selecting our favourite family photos on my laptop.
- When we had our photos ready we printed them all wirelessly using our new HP Photosmart 7520 e-All-in-One printer. All the photos were printed on 4″x6″ HP Photo Paper.
- Next we picked one of the printed photos, cropped it, turned it over and began placing the craft sticks on it with the glue.
- We used same colour sticks for each separate photo and left a bit of a gap in between sticks to easily fit the knife when cutting.
- We run the blade along the craft sticks to separate them and trimmed the ends.
- We repeated the steps above with the remainder of the photos and stored all the sticks in a reusable bag, ready to be played with at anytime.
The HP Photosmart 7520 e-All-in-One printer is a photo printer that can print, copy, scan to e-mail, fax, access Web content via Wifi with the color touchscreen and ePrint straight from your devices.
We used the HP Photosmart 7520 to complete our project above and we love that we can print our photos wirelessly without having to connect our latptop to the printer!
Win it: Now thanks to HP Canada, one very lucky Canadian reader will also have a chance to create and share their own special family moments throughout the year with a brand new HP Photosmart 7520 e-All-in-One printer ($200 value!). Enter the giveaway via Rafflecopter below and be sure to comment with your creative ideas to unlock the other entry options.
- Mandatory for Entry: Share one of your own unique creative project ideas that can be done using the HP Photosmart 7520 e-All-in-One printer. (Comment below and be sure to mark “Done” in the mandatory entry field using the Rafflecopter form below)
Good Luck Everyone!
#SpringBreak #FunwithHP #GetCrafty
Disclosure: I received a sample of a product to facilitate this post. No other compensation was provided and all views and opinions stated on this post are 100% my own.
250 Comments on “DIY Family Photo Puzzles with Craft Sticks – {Plus Win an HP Photosmart 7520 Printer}”
Making cards for all occasions…possibilities are endless!
i would print photos and put them in empty CD cases…put them on the wall…so neat 🙂
Love this craft idea <3. We would print postcards for family that's far away.
Would love to make personal coloring pages and birthday invitations for my little guy!
we love to make our own personal cards
Popsicle stick crafts definitely bring back memories of kindergarten!
If I won this printer, I would finally be able to make a faux headboard out of my favourite shots! That, and maybe a set of coasters for the living room.
I Would make cards for birthdays and do up my own invites. The possibilities are endless. Making a puzzle book would be fun too.
I would make cards and picture albums
wendym at cableone dot net
print my pictures and make cards
I would finally make my daughter scarpbook album from her dance recitals, dance competitions and awards
love it
Personalized Christmas cards 🙂
Maybe the idea isn’t unique but the cards I plan to create for my BFF’s birth announcements will be, I hope!!
That is a really cool way to spruce up a photo!
I would like to make the customized calendars and do some of the photos to transfer decals to make tshirts 🙂
I would print out a whole bunch of pictures of my girlfriend and I, and combine it into a nice scrapbook displaying our history together.
I love giving pics to my family and friends 🙂 sometimes printing at the store is too much of a hassle. A home photo printer would be so nice!
Print picture and iron it onto a shirt
I’d create puzzle pieces.
I’d like to do a collage of all of my grandkids and kids. I’d also like to add photos of my parents and grandparents! It could be very cool!
Printing some of my Smilebox creations
Love making our own personal birthday/thank you cards
I’d use it to make papercraft models.
I would use it to make a collage of pictures from my daughters 1st year.
Love making family portrait christmas cards:)
Make a scrapbooks. I have many photos on my computer that I have always wanted to put in a scrapbook.
wedding invitations
I would use it to make personalized Christmas cards this year with our family pictures on it
I used my printer, which is no longer functional, to print off a few photos and then used Modge Podge to affix them to white tiles. I then put felt on the bottom and, voila, coasters for Grandma!
Thanks for this chance!
I would print photos and attach them to a magnetic back and make a magnetic photo collage for the refrigerator
My daughter loves the Mr. Potato Head she got for her birthday, so I was thinking about printing and cutting out some face parts (like eyes, ears, noses, etc.) and letting her glue them onto a head shape drawn on paper to make her own faces.
You can print out photos and make a collage or scrapbook.
I’d print out photo-quality images and use mod-podge and clear glass stones to make custom jewelery- ie: pics of the grandkids for the grandparents, favourite pets, my own photography of wildlife, etc.
Print…stuff =)
I want to make a very large ( not quiet wall size but large) family tree and use real photos for the family members
I’d create presentations with it
I want to make Minecraft invitations and decorations for my boys’ birthday party in May.
The puzzle pics are a great idea!
i would use a set of wooden blocks and paste a few different family pictures around the sides to make six different puzzles.
I like printing out scrap booking ideas and also cards and photos.
personalized photo books
To make flip books
I would love to make coasters with family pictures on them.
Making birthday cards with photographs of the person concerned
I would make a pennant for a birthday party with older photos!
I would make photo collages of my daughter for her grandparents.
Scrapbooking
I would make cards for all occasions
I’d like to scan the kids artwork and important ticket stubs or memory things like that and make a book.
Whoa – I’m not nearly as creative as you – I love your popsicle stick puzzle. The most creative I get is taking old pictures of my siblings & turning them into one of a kind birthday cards.
I would love to make homemade birthday invitations with my granddaughter. Shes a very creative little girl. She loves stickers, so maybe a sticker book we could make. The ideas are endles
We would make tile pictures!
We would make greeting cards. Or even make a puzzle with photos and have them on a cardboard backing and try to make pieces fit together. Fun for the kids.
silverneon2000 at yahoo dot com
Wow this is an awesome prize. My 5 and 11 year old girls would love this to make them And print them too.
I love the idea of cd cases, they would also be great for fridge magnets as puzzle pieces
We have a lot of black and white photo’s I would love to add color too and make some special things for people that the pictures mean a lot too!
I love the puzzle idea, I do lots of scrapbooking so the printer would help make amazing pages
I would print out pics and paste them on card stock, and make a mobile out of them, thank you:)
I would like to make calenders for all my family members, personalizing them with pictures of them!
personalized family magnets
print on transferable paper movie tickets, airline tickets and make pillows with special memories
I would love to personalize my organizing boxes/baskets with family photos.
I would definitely use this to make personalized cards (i.e birthday/holidays) as well as making Mosaic photo puzzles
Making photo cards for all different occasions!! Would love that, and to be able to design different colouring pages.
I love printing templates for pumpkin carving
I’m not very crafty (but willing to learn) so maybe I could make calendars for my grandsons
I would just LOVE to print off some pictures and get them up on my walls of my two boys
I would use my favourite photos to make personalized invitations and greeting cards. this would also be fantastic for personalized placeholders at dinner parties with the guests photo at each setting. So many cool things are possible…
I’d like to make a physical photo album as opposed to a virtual one.
I would print little Christmas pictures for my boys to colour and make into handmade Christmas cards.
I would use it to make invitations for my twins upcoming birthday
I love the idea! I’m doing this as soon as I win the HP printer! lol
I would print out different images to make lapbooks with my children! They make great learning/creative tools with homeschooling!
Missed that this is canada only…sorry!
Fun photo projects
I would use it to make a scrapbook.
Print out your favourite picture
Glue it to cardboard
Use a jigsaw template and cut out puzzle pieces
Print out a blank cubee craft template and draw your own characters on it.
http://1madhatter.deviantart.com/art/cubeecraft-template-83751909
Or leave it blank as I would, and pretend they’re snowpeople.
Love the popsicle stick idea! In addition to using the printer to create customized and personalized Christmas cards and calendars, (taking inspiration from your popsicle stick puzzle idea) I would blow up an image and print sections of said image onto 5×7 or 4×6 photo paper. I’d frame each section in an edge-less frame and put up on the wall. I’d leave a bit of space between each section of the blown-up photo, resulting in a collage/puzzle effect.
Coloring pages!
Print photos of all family members. Cut out the figures and arrange them all in a group photo. Scan and print copies and send/give them to all members of the family.
I presently have a ton of photos on my laptop that have yet to be printed, so that would be my first project. I would also love to try out the puzzle idea. I would also like to make personalized greeting cards for several occasions.
I have an iris garden, I could take pictures of each iris and staple it to a paint stick and print the iris’s name on it so I would know what was planted where.
make puzzles
I’d love to be able to print out some of the pictures of my daughter when she was younger and make her a scrapbook
would make shirt iron ons
I would print designs to iron on shirts for my little nefew.. This would be a great thing to win. who ever does will be very lucky
I would like to print off photos of our upcoming wedding! Also I neeeeed to make my son’s scrapbook FINALLY!
I would take photos and enlarge them and then print them in pieces and then put them side by side.
Make cards for the kids birthday
scan old photos for my geneology chart
i’d make a photo collage of pics from my fave vacations. it would also be great for making gift tags for x-mas presents.
puzzle for a unique album.
I would print pictures and glue them to ceramic tiles and create a coaster
I am not very creative. I would print out things for the boys to color. Ones we like, frame. Make postcard ones to send to family.
i don’t have a printer right now and this would be great.
What a clever idea will do it for grandson
scanning, printing & assembling a coffee table book of the kids artwork
I’d love to make personalized Birthday invites for my lil one’s upcoming birthday
make birthday cards
This would be great to make invites for my daughters B-day.
I would love to try and make a photo collage wall hanging blanket My sister made one for My Dad and I would really like to make one of My 6 kids for Myself
Wow, Scanning a lot of my photos and outwork of the nieces.
Would love to do some scrapbooking
One creative project that can be done with this printer is paper dolls with your faces. Kids love dressing the paper doll versions of themselves.
I would love to make my own cards and calendars right here in the comfort of our kitchen.
Post cards
My daughter’s birthday is coming up and she wants to create her own invitations on the computer and print them off for her classmates.
Wow, what a cool idea you posted – thanks!
I’d try to make personalized postcards to send to the grandparents.
this would be ideal to make a room-divider using one of my nature photos, just what I need
I would love to scan all different pictures of us and post them on antique bottles to display, and I would also make a cool photo wreath!
I’d make a photo collage
I would love to make family photo puzzles for gifts
thanks
Laminated flash cards from pictures of things around our house, neighbourhood. We use them for memory and reading the words printed on the back!
Printing out flash cards for the kids to practice their words.
I design my own cd covers for my music. Love playing with photoshop and my printer.
I would love to make personalized Christmas cards.
greeting cards
party decorations
I’d make push pins or magnets of friends and family members making funny faces.
We love to make our own personnal cards
I would make cards with this!
I make lots of cards and the HP Photosmart 7520 would help me make some awesome cards!
Its not much of an art project but I would probley use it to mostly print phamplets and other cool things for the charity I work with.
print photos on sticker paper and stick to magnets to decorate your fridge:)
I’d make a photo album of the grandchildren for my mom. We do not live near each other so ways for her to watch them grow are important.
You can make all kinds of cool picture frames that are perfect for your childs school pictures. Makes a great gift for family and friends
I would find this great for doing pictures
I would love to be able to print quality photos to send to family in England !!
I’d print pictures and put together a little album that the baby could look at – he loves faces!
I would create personalized wrapping paper!
Wow! This is a pretty nice printer! Would love to win this! We’d use if everyday for the kid’s school projects!
I would print pictures and try out the popcicle thing with the kids. Such a great idea
It would be fun to make calendars and xmas cards.
Not real crafty here but I do make my own picture cards. I love this idea!
I print pictures on fabric for memory quilts.
I need a printer for spicing up my scrapbooking.
I would make coaters for my family and puzzles for all my grandkids . thanks for the chance to win..
for fathers day last year i made my dad a really nice collage and i had to use a printer to do it and it turned out sooo amazing! so you can make a really nice collage or you can print out some nice letters and modge podge them onto wooden blocks to spell out something like F A M I L Y or something like that. Its a great gift idea that is really easy to do.
Making cards,invitation and so much more…go to love it!
Scrapbooking, using funky printer pages and awesome pictures to create amazing scrapbooks!
We would make personalized birthday invites for our baby
I make my own cards
I would have the most fun creating greeting cards but for something more unique I could make a dental calendar/chart for toothbrushing/flossing reminders for children. It would have a mix of reality and toothfairy whimsy too!
I would love to make birthday cards
It would be perfect for printing pictures to make photo cube Christmas ornaments!
My wife’s birthday is in a few weeks – I’d like to make a card for her – together with the kids – we’re on a budget right now and cards are expensive. That’s why we’re going the way of homemade and handcrafted.
I’d use it to make postcards
Making a wall mural family tree with photos. Thanks for a great giveaway!
There are so many neat ways of displaying photos
My niece is getting married. How about personalized bridal shower invitations!
I just really would like to get some very fragile and precious photos scanned, then I’m not sure yet.
print your own birthday cards!
Being able to make postcards and calendars would be great to make for my family using this printer!
You could make a great blanket!
Making birthday and Christmas cards.
our 2nd grandson is due in june so I would love to do a card with the 2 of them together
Christmas cards or baby shower invites
Would like to make a scrapbook for my niece!
photcards and collages
i would make wall decals so i can personalize my sons walls without ruining the paint.
I want to make a great family collage.
Personalized cards eg) Thank you, Birthday, Holidays
I print pictures and add them to stock cards for birthday and seasonal cards (Easter, Christmas, etc)
use it to print photo place cards for my kids’ birthday parties.
I would print black and white versions of my pictures to make a family wall
I would use the printer to create personalized cards for all occasions
cupcake toppers are always fun to print and make!
I have been wanting to set up an Inspiration Board
I think personalized Christmas ornaments would be something great to make using this printer.
i want to do a collage.. however you spell it.. print off tons and tons of papers and mesh them all together for the grandparents.. they will absolutely love it!!
definatly christmas cards!
making origami with patterns
I like making my own cards!
making a calendar as presents
I scrapbook so this is a no brainer 🙂
We print photos on holiday and birthday cards
I don’t have any particularly creative ideas, but I’d use it for making Christmas and birthday cards.
Photo Birthday Party invitations!
I’d love to make photo collages!
Make flyer for my day care.
I would love to do a collage of pictures that look like old school polaroids. I need something to keep me mentally and physically busy and my mind off some things.
I would like to take my grandparents old black and white photos and make them into some mementos for my dad and aunts.
i am a scrapbooker, i have done a 3-d page before you print out several of the same picture and layer with foam stickers. it looks pretty neat.
i would make my wedding invites
I would use this printer to create a puzzle for my daughter.
We could print photos for scrap booking.
definitely making cards
Making photo greeting cards 🙂
wow that is so neat the one you posted. I think a wedding invitation to close family memebers would be fun in a puzzle type, or invites to your kids bday party …kids love stuff like that
I think it would be good to do a similar idea as your puzzle one but to mount onto magnetic strips. Use pictures of family members or pets and put on your fridge, etc so toddlers/young children can piece them together while you are busy making dinner!
http://www.wikihow.com/Do-Iron-on-T-Shirts-and-Make-Designs-on-the-Computer
I would love to make unique party invitations for my kids!
I want to make some greeting cards and prints for my wall
I would make personalized book marks and book covers of the children
I love scanning in old family photos and then making personalized greeting cards with them
I used clear plastic paper & just black ink to make labels for my glass cansters
I would create photo books of the kids. Almost 6 years of unprinted photos sitting in my computer!
I’ve made personalized photo magnets, kids live them!
You can print out a picture to fit a canvas size of your choosing, take black acrylic paint and paint the canvas and sides, let dry, now take mod podge and smear paste (with foam paint brush, which you can buy at dollar store) on the front, adhere picture and then put more mod podge on top of the picture. Let dry. When dry you will have a gorgeous mountable picture.
I would print pics & then place them under a sheet of glass and place into a tray so uou can serve drinks & you see pictures underneath.
I would print pictures & place on a serving tray & then pit a pice of glass over it. Then you see pictures on the top of the tray.
I’d like to print a family cookbook with photos of the kids when they help cook and/or eat the recipes…so they have a keepsake when they move out on their own!
i would use it in my printing business when i finish restoring pictures
We don’t get to see our family often so I’d like to make a collage of family pictures so that our little one can practice her identification to A.) not be afraid of family members B.) shock the family members when she says “oh hi…
I would print my favourite photos and make a collage!
I like making my own card; birthday card, Thank you card…
I really enjoy it and it’s more personal to each person I give it to.
Wanted to make the kids these forever but we don’t have a great printer:
Make a personal pokecard for your child:
http://www.mypokecard.com/en
i am not creative at all… so i love reading everyone elses creative ideas!
posters for the kids
That’s pretty cool!
Crapola! Forgot to add my own craft… hmm…. I’ve seen others print out one very large image on to 24 single pages, then assemble them onto their wall for a very large version of the picture.
Make personalized birthday & holiday cards!
I have a couple of stories I would like to put together for my nephew. This printer would make the whole process a lot easier.
Make personalized birthday cards.
I would create my own cards for special occasions
printing out picture badges for VBS
vmkids3 at msn dot com
I would make personalized cards
I would use it to print photos of my grandchilren to make folding brag books.Everyone loves them because the fold up so small but hold a ton of photos.
make scrapbooks.
I’d insert photos into papercrafting projects
I could print a photo onto regular paper, collage it onto a Mason jar and put a candle inside.
I would scan in a plat layout of some land we are looking at, enlarge it on grid paper, and use that to make a layout of the cabins, etc, we want to put on it.
The most creative I’ve been is making window clings and making custom stickers. I made a J&B Trucking sticker that I put on a dollar store semi truck for a friend’s son who loved J&B trucks b/c his father (who had recently passed away) drove a truck from there.
I like to print photos with funny captions and then turn them into cards
You could use the printer to print off pictures on iron on paper and make a photo quilt. They turn out so beautiful!
We would make a collage out of each child’s artwork in my sons class and they could give it to their parents as a gift.
I would make business cards for work.
printa stick figure
I like to make collages and turn them into cards to give to family!
Photo collages
I am not sure what I would do as I am not creative, but one I do like to do with a really good printer is I like to print the oil paints that I paint and give a few copies out to friend that enjoy them.
Oh my goodness, there are so many things! Pictures for sure, but also manuscripts would be nice. I love the popsicle pic idea!
I think it would be fun to print a photo on sticky paper and make it into a puzzle that we can take apart and put back together again
You could make collages of important pictures
I would make the grandparents calenders with pics of the grandkids
I’d use it to make a kaleidocycle of my family & friends. Here’s the project: http://foldplay.com/kaleidocycle.action;jsessionid=9DC1850F92FE9FD051E97844006B75F2
I would make a collage of all the kids in the family
I love to make personal cards, and have been wanting to create a picture wall up our staircase, this would be perfect for both things!
I would make baby shower invitations and postcards!
Making T-shirt transfers on home printers is an easy and creative way to make wearable art using family-special photos and whichever photo editing software you choose.
I love your puzzle idea! I love Scapbooking I like to get the kids involved & make it a family project. Thank for the great contest.
I would love to make my own greeting cards with it. Thanks for the chance to win.
congrats to the winner
I could actually use this at work!
so nice to do and have memories all cool ways!
This is a great tip especially to those new to the blogosphere.
Short but very precise info… Appreciate your sharing this one.
A must read post!
I would love to make personal coloring pages
What a great printer and I love what you did with the pictures
Love this! What a wonderful craft idea!