Fall Recycled Puzzle Trees

I am always trying to think of what to do with all our old puzzles that have missing pieces.  I hate to throw them out, so we decided to make fall trees.  This is a great way to upcycle materials that would get thrown out.

All you need is:

~ Paper (thick paper you can paint and glue on)

~ an old puzzle

~ paint in various colors

~ glue

~ sponge (optional)

Directions:

Lay out all the puzzle pieces upside down.

Choose your colors.

You could make the ‘leaves’ whatever color you like, but for this fall tree, we used yellow, orange, red, and brown.

We used a regular sponge to do a sponge-painting technique, but you can use a brush or even fingerpaint with the colors.

Set aside your puzzle pieces to dry.

While your puzzle pieces are drying, paint a tree and allow to dry.

Once both are dry, go ahead and glue on your leaves!

You can do different variations on this project, from how you paint the puzzle pieces (sponge painting, layers of colors, etc), to what colors you use.  We also used large puzzle pieces, because it was the only size we had, but this project would also be great with little puzzle pieces.  Have fun with it and be creative!