Popsicle Stick Photo Puzzles With Mix-and-Match Faces

Here’s a link for instructions to make puzzles from a 4×6 photo and craft sticks.

Now, here’s the twist I came up with: I used Photoshop to make all the photos the same size, so when my kids play with the puzzles, they can switch around their eyes and other facial features with each other’s.

Here’s how I did it: I scanned my kids’ school photos (Hazel didn’t have a school photo, so I just found the best snapshot I could) and made them a good printing size. Then I added the photos one at a time to a new Photoshop file. Keep the bottom layer visible, and then with each new layer, reduce the opacity to 50%, so you can see through to make the face line up with the one underneath. Rotate and resize as necessary. It’s impossible to make a 14-year-old face line up perfectly with a 2-year-old’s, so I just tried to make sure the eyes lined up well, and also tried to match the chins. Once I was satisfied, I’d make that layer invisible and work on the next one.

Then I hid all the layers but one, and printed one layer at a time.

When you glue the photo to the sticks, make sure that the eyes don’t have a cut going through them–and if you have to shift the photo a little, make sure that you shift each photo the same.

I also did each photo on its own color of craft stick, making it easy to reassemble the original photos.

I was thinking about putting these in my kids’ Christmas stockings, but I couldn’t wait. And they immediately had all sorts of ideas for what to do with them.