My last few projects have been custom designed learning puzzles for my kids.
First one is a Books of Bible bookshelf to help my children understand the structure and order of the Bible. Books are grouped by sections and separated by Old/New Testament. I made each book proportionally sized (in height and width) to the approximate amount of scripture it contains. And the puzzle cut-outs help put all the books back in the right order. I pre-painted my wood for the Bible books before cutting with acrylic craft paint.
Next up is an Earth Timeline history puzzle. The puzzle pieces are the eons and major eras of Earth. Underneath on the puzzle backer, I added graphics to show the coming of life for different groups. Major Earth formation events are noted around the outside rim of the puzzle frame. I’m hoping all this correlated information will help inspire a broader view of Earth History and their own place in the world. I painted these puzzle pieces after cutting since they’re all different colors. They are colored with Derwent Inktense watercolor pencils and then washed out with q-tips and rubbing alcohol. I like this method for small projects because I can be more precise with the color, I didn’t want to glob up the scored text I had just made with liquid paint.
Once I designed everything, both projects went together pretty fast, it was all simple cuts and scoring for the text. My oldest has loved working with them so far
These are both very nice! I wish I’d had the Earth Timeline one as a child myself… I am intrigued by your Inktense pencil work–I have a set of those pencils, and want to experiment now with the technique you describe…I’ve used regular colored pencils with gamsol on watercolor paper, I think that would be similar to what you’ve done here.
I LOVE my watercolor pencils, I highly recommend giving them a try. I started off with a cheap set to see if the technique would work on wood and then upgraded to the Derwent Inktense set, they are much more vibrant. I’m not an artist by any means (no idea what gamsol is?), so the pencils allow me to be very precise in laying down the color, especially when I do really detailed work like the earth puzzle below.
I had lots of tiny areas that I would have never been able to do neatly with a paintbrush plus I was able to get some nice blending with the colored pencils. For projects with large blocks of color, I use craft paint with baby wipes. But for detailed work, these pencils are my go-to. Here’s a swatch card I made so you can see how they look dry and then washed out on wood.
I did something like that recently and it’s been working pretty well, it’s numbered tiles on a grid board with the times table fact underneath. Educational projects are my favorite, I’ve got this board and lots more in my shop, check the link in my profile for more inspiration.
Looks great! My husband was not so impressed with my version b/c it didn’t light up like the plastic one he had as a kid, maybe you can solve that problem, haha
