Ice block sticks, icy pole sticks, sticks for rub ons, whatever you wish to call them they are great for many crafts. One thing I used to do for, or with my boys when they were little was a basic jigsaw puzzle.
They could draw a picture, take a photo of a pet or themselves, or cut out a magazine picture, stick onto a set of paddle pop sticks, cut and voila. Their favourite pictures were their lego or k’nex creations
Grab your paddle pop sticks and line them up side by side. The size of your puzzle depends on how many sticks you have to line up. Keep them few for small kids and many more for the older ones to make it more difficult.
Cut your picture according to size of your assembled sticks.
With thin double sided adhesive or a thin smear of glue carefully adhere your picture to those sticks, watch they can still move about. I find it best to put a rough edge outline on the sticks and glue the sticks rather than the picture.
If you use wet glue you will have to set aside for drying. If you’ve used the double sided tape press down well to stick firmly.
When the picture is stuck down well carefully turn your stick puzzle over and with a sharp craft knife cut between the sticks to make your pieces. Check each piece of picture paper is neatly pushed along the edge of the stick with the back of your finger nail, so the edges don’t lift easily.
Shuffle stick puzzle pieces around and put back together. When tastes change or you need a harder puzzle start again. Store the individual puzzles in ziploc bags.
I’ve not made one for a very long time, here’s my example.
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