Googly Eyed Monster Puzzle

Covert a child's puzzle to this colorful, googly-eyed monster mash!

Posted by Joybells

About

This idea came into being when I got together with the Children's Director at my church to plan an ice cream social to thank all the volunteers that teach our children. The theme was on "working together," and we wanted to highlight the individuality of all our teachers and helpers. Attendees selected a fun puzzle piece that reflected their personality, then they attempted to find other individuals whose piece fit theirs. Eventually, everyone came together to complete the finished puzzle. Afterwards, individuals took home their puzzle piece as a party favor. Magnetic strips were handed out to those that wanted to turn their puzzle piece into a refrigerator magnet.

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You Will Need (8 things)

  • Craft Glue
  • Googly Eyes
  • Acrylic Paints
  • Fine Tip Black Sharpie
  • Detail Paint Brush
  • 1 Spray Paint (Glossy)
  • White Primer (Spray Can)
  • Children's Puzzle

Steps (5 steps, 480 minutes)

  1. 1

    To complete this project, you'll need the following.

    1) Large-piece children's puzzle. I used a 25-piece puzzle for children aged 3 and up.

    2) Spray Primer (Preferably white).

    3) Spray Paint (Glossy - Various Shades) Be careful that you don't select colors that are too dark since you will be drawing on them with black sharpies and also painting facial details. For this project, I used Red, Orange, Blue, Yellow, and Green.

    4) Acrylic Paints (Predominately White, Pink, Red).

    5) Small paint brushes (Liner and/or Small Round Brush).

    6) Black Sharpies (Extra-Fine and Regular Fine Tips).

    7) Craft Glue.

    8) Googly Eyes (Various sizes). Three sizes were used in this project.

  2. 2

    Divide the puzzle pieces into groups based on how many different shades you are planning to use as background colors.

    You might want to piece the puzzle together first and then select pieces from different areas so you get an even distribution of the background colors.

    Spread the puzzle pieces on a protected surface then spray them with white primer. You may have to apply multiple coats depending on the image you are covering. Allow adequate time to dry between coats.

    After the primer has dried, apply the colored spray paint. You may need to apply additional coats depending on the original image you are covering.

  3. 3

    Here is a sample of the different colors I used: blue, orange, green, yellow and red.

  4. 4

    Time to have some googly-eyed fun and to add a few facial features.

    Use your craft glue to position eyes onto the puzzle pieces.

    Use your black sharpies to draw eyebrows or lashes and to create simple mouth, teeth, lips and tongues on your googly-eyed monsters. Use your acrylic paints to add color to the teeth, lips and tongues.

    Keep the faces simple.

    If you prefer all the faces to be upright, make sure you piece the puzzle back together before you start drawing so you know which direction to draw the face.

    Or just go with the flow like I did and randomly draw the faces.

  5. 5

    Time to piece together your googly-eyed monster puzzle.

    This is just plain cute in a monsterly kind of way!