Puzzle Contest

Now that Christmas is over, I think its time to for another contest! This time, lets focus a bit on puzzles. Puzzles are a lot of fun to cut and always a welcomed gift. This contest is open to everybody on Earth (however, special arrangements can be made for those outside our galaxy). This contest is sponsored by Dale's Puzzles. He was kind enough to donate patterns for 1st (10 patterns), 2nd (5 patterns) and 3rd (2 patterns).

Entry is easy. All you have to do is cut a puzzle, take a pic, and post it in your User Gallery. Make sure you post a link to it in this thread. Entries can be anything, as long as its a puzzle; a free standing puzzle, a jigsaw puzzle, tray puzzle, brain teaser puzzle, or (if you're really ambitious) a Japanese puzzle box!

If you'd like another shot at winning one of these sweet prizes, you can also design a puzzle for our Pattern Library. We'd really like to expand our puzzle offerings, so this is a great way to enter and help out SSV at the same time.

So here's the rundown. The contest will run from January 1st through the morning of February 4th. You can get one entry for a puzzle cutting and one entry for a puzzle pattern for a total of two entries. The winner will be drawn at random, live in the chat room on February 4th at 7pm MST. I'll turn on the webcam and pull some names from the hat.

Special thanks to Dale for sponsoring this contest. He has a ton of really cool puzzle patterns on his website, so be sure to check him out. If you decide to make a purchase, please thank Dale for sponsoring this contest. Without him, this contest would not be possible.

OK. Here's the fine print. - You can only get a maximum of 2 entries per person. Links to your pictures and/or patterns must be posted in this thread to be entered in the contest. Creation of additional accounts to increase your chances of winning are strictly prohibited and may get you banned (we can tell these things). You'll have 2 weeks to claim your prize. After that, a new drawing will be held where we'll pick a new winner. Have fun!

Here's my submission for the puzzle pattern. I'm not really sure on the particulars for the entry (theme, size, etc.). I thought I would offer an abstact design. I created this using MS Picture It. I call it "Eggs n Toast." See what you can do with the right medication

[attachment=0]eggs n toast.jpg[/attachment]

I call it "Eggs n Toast." See what you can do with the right medication

[attachment=0]eggs n toast.jpg[/attachment]

Were you smoking the eggs and toast when you made this!

Here is my try......Paul

Here's my submission for the "cut" puzzle contest. Cut from one of the Xmas cards we received.

[attachment=0]bear1.jpg[/attachment]

Looks Great Vector

Ok I decided to go with the first puzzle I cut which is in my gallery. The king of clubs. The reason is its smaller and was more of a challenge than the puzzle I just finished. So here is my entry. It has 35 pieces and is a standard size playing card.

Ok here is my attempt at making a puzzle pattern with a picture I took. I hope this works for someone. I am not a puzzle kind of guy, but I know that there are a number of you out there, so if you try to cut this please let me know how it works out for you. I will be more than happy to make some more puzzle patterns like this if this one works out.

Edited to add this:

I made this big so you can create the size puzzle you want, so make sure you resize it to the size you want your puzzle to be.

Hmmm...this contest is turning out to be a little trickier than I expected. I guess it's because of the abiguity of what the contest entails and what was expected. I guess I dropped the ball on that one and I apologize. I don't want to offend anybody because clearly some time and effort went into preparing an entry. But here it goes.

The contest is really intended for new submissions (ie, items uploaded to the User Gallery or Pattern Library during the time of the contest). Having a contest is a way to encourage new submissions and content to be added to SSV. So basically get some new stuff flowing and hopefully encourage new membership and participation. So while Clayton's card puzzle is really cool, it was uploaded at the beginning of December. I was really looking for new submissions. I know I'd love to see the puzzle that you have been working on.

As for patterns, we were looking for patterns so we can cut a puzzle. This would include free standing puzzles, tray puzzle patterns, and maybe some puzzle templates. Images to cut isn't really what we were after (we have a lot of access to that from old calenders, Google, and snapshots). However, a puzzle template that can be used to cut a 5x7" picture would really be useful. So while Vector's "Eggs n Toast" is a cool image, it's really not a pattern as there is no instructions of where to cut.

Messman's "Docked" image is a really cool image, but the puzzle lines become distracting in the finished project. When you end up cutting the puzzle, you'll still have the graphically drawn lines in the image that you'll be able to see. While useful when cutting, it is rather unsightly when finished.

The way Grampa approached his "Globe" puzzle may work for both Vector and Messman. He includes the printable image, but also includes an overlay puzzle template to cut the image. Steve Good demonstrates how overlay a puzzle template to cut an image

Lets also remember free standing puzzles. They seem to be popular among puzzle cutters and pretty easy to make. It really is nothing more than a profile with some keys and locks inserted. You can find several examples in the Puzzle section of the Pattern Library. (I'm hoping to put together an Inkscape video on how to design a freestanding puzzle in the next week or so.)

With that said, I'm not going to disqualify anybody since I wasn't really clear in the contest instructions. It was certainly open for interpretation. I hope nobody takes any offense to my little spiel. I consider you all to be my friends and certainly don't want to offend anybody. It was clearly my fault for not being very specific.

no problem here Travis. I should have thought about that when I entered the card puzzle. So you can delete that posting if you want I will enter this puzzle instead. It's a puzzle cut from a picture of our little dog "chippie". The puzzle has 46 pieces and was cut freehand so there are some odd shaped pieces.

no problem here Travis. I should have thought about that when I entered the card puzzle. So you can delete that posting if you want I will enter this puzzle instead. It's a puzzle cut from a picture of our little dog "chippie". The puzzle has 46 pieces and was cut freehand so there are some odd shaped pieces.

Thanx for being a good sport. I was afraid I'd step on some toes.

You cut that freehand? That looks pretty dern good! The pieces are very uniform. in size. Nicely done!

hope I get this right, if so here's my entry

This is cut from a pattern by Steve Good.

This is the invitation to my daughters wedding. She cried like a baby when she got it for Christmas.

I was unable to post in my gallery as I can't find my gallery. Does this qualify by posting it here?

This is the invitation to my daughters wedding. She cried like a baby when she got it for Christmas.

I was unable to post in my gallery as I can't find my gallery. Does this qualify by posting it here?

Yup, you're entered. Looks great. That would make a lovely keepsake.

If you're looking for your gallery, just click the My Gallery link under User Gallery and it will take you to your albums. If you haven't created an User Gallery yet, you can find a [tut]tutorial on how to do that here.[/tut]

Thanks Travis.

Here is my entry.

[attachment=0]DSCF0001 (2).JPG[/attachment]

Here is a photo of the back as it is hard to see the cuts on the front picture.

[attachment=0]DSCF0014.JPG[/attachment]

Here is my puzzle!!

Michael........Indy............

Clockman That is a pretty cool picture of butterflies! I really like it.

Here is my Ultimate Puzzle.. It has NO locking tabs but is fun with a group of people to help put it together.

Michael......Indy......

Here is my entry for the puzzle contest.

A Self standing dog puzzle of a Cocker Spaniel I designed for BowWow Creations

http://www.hc-associates.net

Here's My entry Travis hope you like it.

Do to some unforeseen circumstances Travis nor I could be at the chat last night. I apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused anyone. This contest thread will be locked as the deadline for entries has passed. We will be picking the winners very soon. More than likely at next weeks chat on 2/12/10.